LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



ClRi..' - Capyrigfjt Ijjo 

Shelf 'IK(o -' 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



What Catholics Believe and Do, 

ok 

SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING 
THE CHURCH'S FAITH AND 
PRACTICE, 



EY THE 

Rev. Arthur Ritchie, 



Rector of St. Ignatius' Church, New York. 

f 




Copyrighted 
By the Guild of St. Ignatius, 
1891. 



The Library 

of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



PREFACE. 



This small volume has been prepared with 
much care, in the hope that it may meet the 
wants of those who desire a short account of 
the Church and her ways from the Catholic 
standpoint, and a hand-book of information not 
easily arrived at without consulting a number 
of larger works. It has all been thoroughly 
reviewed by three well-learned clergymen of 
the Church, and the author gratefully acknowl- 
edges his indebtedness to them for many most 
important corrections of and additions to the 
original manuscript. The one aim and object 
of the work has been to set forth in concise 
form the Catholic faith and practice of the 
Church, in loyalty to the standards of the 
Anglican Communion in this country. That 
God may bless it to His glory is the prayer of 
the Author. 



Easter, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. God, 3-6 

II. Creation, 6 

III. The Angels and the Devils, 7-9 

IV. The Fall of Man, 9-1 1 

V. Cain and Abel, 11 

VI. The Antediluvians and the Flood, 12, 13 

VII. The Patriarchs, 14, 15 

VIII. The Israelitish Church, 16-20 

IX. The Bible of the Israelites, 20 

X. The History of the Israelites, 21-23 

XI. The Incarnation, 24, 25 

XII. The Passion of our Lord, 26, 27 

XIII. Our Lord's Descent into Hell, 28 

XIV. The Purpose of the Church, 29 

XV. The Great Fifty Days, 30 

XVI. The Authority of the Apostles, 31 

XVII. The Coming of the Holy Ghost, 31 

XVIII. The Divinity of our Lord, 32-34 

XIX. The Organization of the Church, 35, 36 

XX. The New Testament, 37 

XXI. The Inspiration of the Bible, 38-40 

XXII. The Early History of the Church, 41,42 

XXIII. The Great Patriarchates, 43,44 

XXIV. The Separation between East 

and West, 45 

XXV. The Early English Church, 46,47 

XXVI. The Anglican Reformation, 48, 49 

XXVII. The Prayer Book, 50-53 



CHAPTER TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE 

XXVIII. Our American Prayer Book, 54,55 

XXIX. Sects, 56,57 

XXX. The Sacraments (in general), 58, 59 

XXXI. Baptism, 60-65 

XXXII. Confirmation, 66-69 

XXXIII. The Eucharist, 69-76 

XXXIV. The Eucharist as a Sacrament, 77—8 r 

XXXV. The Eucharistic Sacrifice, 81-83 

XXXVI. The Christian Sanctuary, 84-91 

XXXVII. Penance, 92-96 

XXXVIII. Absolution, 96-100 

XXXIX. The Penalty of Sin, 100-J05 
XL. Orders, 106-109 
XLI. Matrimony, 110-1 13 
XLII. Extreme Unction, 113, 114 
XLIII. The Creeds, 115-7. 17 
XLIV. God the Holy Ghost, 1 18, 1 19 
XLV. The Holy Catholic Church, 120-124 
XLVI. The Communion of Saints, 125-129 
XLVII. The Resurrection of the Body, 1 29-131 
XLVIII. The Life Everlasting and 

Everlasting Death, 132 

XLIX. Prayer, *33-i35 

L. Fasting, 13 6 , ^37 

LI. Almsgiving, 13S 

LII. The Commandments, 139-143 

LIII. The Seven Capital Sins, 144 

LIV. Some Pious Customs, 145, 146 

LV. The Religious Life, 147, 148 

LVL The Ecclesiastical Year, 149-15:; 



WHAT CATHOLICS BELIEVE AND DO, 

or Simple Instructions Concerning the 
Church's Faith and Practice. 



Chapter I. 
GOD. 

We easily think of God as the Father of all, 
the Maker and Preserver of the universe. God 
must therefore be Almighty; He is the Ruler and 
Upholder of all things, the Source of all power. the 
Centre of every force. The perfect order of the 
universe, the wonderful way in which everything 
is adapted to its own use, and the fitness of al' 
living creatures for their own kinds of life teach 
us that God is All- Wise, as well as Almighty. 
Power without wisdom could never have created 
the universe with its perfect order. Again the 
general beauty of creation, and the evident pro- 
vision that has been made for man's happiness, 
in spite of the many sad things in the world, 
teach us that God is also Good. Devils might 
exercise great power and great wisdom, but God 
only exercises absolute power and infinite wis- 
dom with perfect goodness. 

The Church teaches us in the Creed that God 
is in Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost. When we use the word person of 
ourselves we mean an individual in human nature. 



4 



When it is used of God it defines certain neces- 
sary distinctions in the Divine nature. God in 
His nature can only be One. It is impossible 
that there can be more than one God. Yet in 
the Divine nature there are distinct Individuali- 
ties. To understand this in the best way we 
should think of God not as we would of a man, 
but rather as we would of a mind. God is pure 
Spirit, without body, parts or passions. God 
the Father is the one Source and Origin of all 
persons and things that exist. 

From all eternity the Father, the Divine Mind 
acts, expressing Himself in one perfect Thought 
Which has a distinct Personality from Himself. 

The Divine Mind differs in Its action from our 
human minds in this that we express ourselves 
in many partial thoughts which, taken together, 
do not even declare our whole mind, and come 
one after another many of the earlier ones being 
forgotten before the later ones have come into 
being; but God thinks but one Thought forever, 
Which pe: fectly declares His whole Mind, and is, 
as the Apostle says " The express Image of His 
Person" (Heb. i, 3.). This perfect Thought of 
God St. John calls the Logos, or Word, and is 
the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God 
the Son. The Word of God is called the Son be- 
cause as as a child is begotten by his father, so 
the Expressed Thought is begotten of the Think- 
ing Mind; and as the Thinking Mind in the Divine 
Life is God the Father, so the Expressed 
Thought Which declares that Mind is God the 
Son, the Only-begotten of the Father. (St. John 
i, 18.) 



5 



The perfect goodness of God has always gone 
forth within the Divine Essence in one great act of 
love, the Father loving the Son and the Son lov- 
ing the Father. The Love of God is spoken of as 
the Spirit, literally Breath, of God which goes 
forth towards the Object of love. This Spirit 
of God is a distinct Person from the Father and 
the Son, while joining Them in the unity of love, 
and is called the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, 
for ghost is only old English for spirit 

Thus we see that we are obliged to think of 
God as three in Person though but ojie in Life. 
The Father exists of Himself alone, and is the 
Fount and Origin of all being. The Son is of 
the Father alone, not made nor created but be- 
gotten before all worlds. The Holy Ghost is of 
the Father and the Son, not made nor created 
nor begotten but proceeding. 

The Father is first, the Son second, and the 
Holy Ghost third, not in time, but in the order of 
the Divine life, for all three Persons are coetern- 
al together and coequal. 

Our Lord tells us that " The Son can do noth- 
ing of Himself." This means that the Son 
being one in essence and power with the Father, 
can do nothing to the exclusion of the Father. 
Every power which the Father has, the Son has 
likewise with Him. The power by which the 
Father generates, is in the Son, the Father having 
it as giving, the Son as receiving. The Divine 
Persons mutually inexist. (St. John xiv, n; and 
xvii, 21.) 

To the Father is attributed especially the work 
of Creation, that is the origination of all things 



6 



out of His own infinite Being; to the Son the 
work of Redemption, that is the restoration of 
man after his fall into sin; to the Holy Ghost 
the work of Sanctification, that is the making holy 
of man so that he may be able to dwell with 
God in heaven. 



Chapter II. 
CREATION. 

The Book of Genesis tells us that in the begin- 
ning God created the heaven and the earth. 
Then we are told how He prepared the world 
for man in six days. This word day does not 
mean of necessity twenty four hours, but 
rather a time of darkness, perhaps of thousands 
of years, followed by a corresponding time of 
light. " And God called the light Day, and the 
darkness He called Night. And the evening and 
the morning were the first day." Gen. i, 4. On 
the first day, after God had created the heaven 
and the earth, the darkness that had covered the 
earth which was without form and void, gave 
place to light. 

On the second day the dense vapours which 
had covered the surface of the earth were lifted 
up and an aerial atmosphere took their place. 

On the third day the continents which had 
thus far been covered with water appeared, and 
the oceans were confined within their limits. 
Then the earth was speedily covered with grass, 
various herbs, and fruit-bearing trees. 

On the fourth day the sun and moon and stars 
appeared and shed their light upon the earth. 



7 



On the fifth day the fishes and fowls came into 
being. 

On the sixth day all the rest of the living crea- 
tures were made, and last of all Adam the father 
of the Human race. 

Man differed frojn all other earthly creatures 
in being made in the image and after the likeness 
of God. By the image of God we ought to 
understand all those things in the human 
race which radically distinguish it from the 
beasts, as for example man's sense of religion, his 
conscience, and his constant desire to improve 
his condition. By the likeness of God is rather 
to be understood a special gift of holiness, 
which like a garment of glory clothed our first 
parents in the Garden. 

Man's body was made of the dust of the ground. 
Then God breathed into it the breath of life, and 
man became a living soul. The body of the woman 
was not made directly of the dust of the ground, 
but out of a rib taken by God from the side of 
Adam, while he slept. By thus giving man a wife 
made of his own flesh God taught him the 
sacredness of the marriage bond, which only 
death can dissolve. " They twain shall be one 
flesh." 

Chapter III. 
THE ANGELS AND THE DEVILS. 
God created a countless number of pure 
spirits, called Angels, to nve in heaven, 
probably long before He made Adam upon 
earth. We find no less than nine different 
orders of these heavenly spirits named in the 



8 



Bible, (i.) Seraphim (Is. vi, 2), (2.) Cherubim 
(Ezek. x, 20-21), (3.) Thrones, (4.) Principalities, 
(5.) Dominions, (6.) Powers (Col. i, 16), (7.) Vir- 
tues, or Mights (Eph. i. 21), (8.) Archangels, (Jude 
9), (9.) Angels (Heb. i, 7). Of these the Cheru- 
bim and Seraphim are represented as continually 
praising God in heaven. They cry "Holy, Holy, 
Holy, is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is 
full of His glory." The Archangels and Angels 
seem to be especially in charge of the affairs of 
men. St. Paul says of the Angels, "Are they not 
all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for 
them who shall be heirs of salvation?'* Three of 
the Archangels are mentioned in Holy Scrip- 
ture, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael, 
while in the Apocryphal Book of Esdras St. 
Uriel is also named. 

Some time in the past, probably before the 
creation of man, one of the great angels in heav- 
en, Lucifer, rebelled against God. His sin was 
pride (Is. xiv, 12-15). Many of the Angels fol- 
lowed him in his sin. So there was war in 
heaven, but St. Michael and the good Angels 
prevailed against the sinners, and they were cast 
out. (Rev. xii, 7-9.; St. Jude 6). After his fall 
Lucifer became " that old serpent called the 
Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole 
world." 

It is possible that in the fall of the Angels the 
mystery of the origin of evil is solved. God 
Who is perfect Goodness could not make 
anything evil; but the Angels who fell chose 
their own glory, which was good in itself, 
instead of the glory of God as the object of their 



9 



being. Thus by living for a lesser good than the 
highest good they made an evil choice, and in- 
troduced sin into creation. We may reasonably 
believe that the rebellion of Lucifer was the one 
great probation of the Angels. Those who fell 
then are fallen for eternity, they can never be 
restored; and those who remained loyal to God 
were confirmed in their loyalty forever. Now 
while Satan and his devils strive to make men 
wicked like themselves, the good Angels help us 
to be righteous. 

The nature of the Angels is different from that 
of men. They are pure spirits without material 
bodies (Ps. civ, 4). And though now they are so 
much greater than we, yet the Saints in heaven 
are promised greater glory than the Angels, be- 
cause our Lord has taken human nature and 
made it His own, but He took not angelic nature. 
(Heb. ii, 16). 

It is a pious belief of Catholics that God gives 
to every person at his birth a special Angel to be 
his guardian (St. Matt., xviii, 10). 



Chapter IV. 
THE FALL OF MAN. 

When God had made Adam and Eve, He 
placed them in the garden of Eden, to dress it 
and to keep it. He told them that they might 
eat freely of all the trees in the garden except of 
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By 
this tree their obedience to God was to be proved. 

Then came Satan to Eve, as she stood by the 
tree of knowledge, to tempt her. Although he 



10 



directly contradicted what God had said, and 
told her that she should not die if she should eat 
of the forbidden fruit, Eve listened to him, 
until she was quite deceived by him. He induced 
her to see that the forbidden fruit was good for 
food, pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to 
make one wise. Here we find the beginning of 
all three of those great roots of sin by which 
men are tempted, the lust of the flesh (Sensuali- 
ty), the lust of the eyes (Covetousness), and the 
pride of life (Pride), (i St. John, ii, 16.) 

Then Eve took of the forbidden fruit and ate 
it. When Adam came to her she desired him 
als6 to eat with her. Adam was not deceived as 
his wife had been, (1 Tim. ii, 14), yet he chose 
rather to stay with her by committing sin, than 
to be separated from her, as he supposed he 
would be, by remaining faithful to God. So he 
ate also, and then both of them saw how greatly 
they had sinned and sought to hide themselves 
from God. 

But God easily found them out and brought 
them to judgment. Upon the woman the sen- 
tence of pain in child-bearing and of subjection 
to her husband was pronounced. Upon man 
that of sorrow and labour in earning his living. 
Yet while the ground was cursed, man himself 
was not cursed. Upon both man and woman 
came also the penalty of death, which they 
probably would have escaped, througli Divine 
grace, had they never sinned. 

Thus by the sin of our first parents w r as the 
whole state of the human race in the world 
changed. Supernatural holiness was lost to 



11 



man, and the proper order of his nature so sub- 
verted that his passions constantly rebel against 
his higher nature and move his will to actions 
which his conscience condemns. By this first 
transgression man was also alienated from God, 
and could not be restored to favour and the 
heavenly life except by redemption. God was 
very merciful hovvever,and even while pronounc- 
ing sentence upon the guilty ones He promised 
that eventually the seed of the woman (that is 
our Lord) shoiald bruise the head of the serpent 
(that is Satan). This first promise of redemp- 
tion was fulfilled when our Lord died on the 
Cross. 

Chapter V. 

CAIN AND ABEL. 

So soon as man had sinned God drove him 
out of Eden. We next read that children were 
born to Adam and Eve; the one of them, Cain, 
was a tiller of the ground, the other, Abel, a 
keeper of sheep. At the end of days, perhaps on 
some primaeval Sabbath, the brothers came to 
worship the Lord. Cain offered of the fruit of 
the ground, but Abel of the firstlings of his flock. 
Abel's offering was accepted and Cain's rejected. 
We may believe that there underlies this history 
a great truth of religion. For Abel s offering, 
the lamb slain at the Altar, was a type of our 
Lord the Lamb of God, offered on the Cross. 
So Abel's offering showed his acknowledgment 
of the fact that he was a sinner, deserving death 
for his sins, yet trusting in a Saviour Who 
should die for him that he might be saved. 



12 



Cain's offering expressed no acknowledgment of 
sinfulness, nor any faith in a Saviour; but only 
that God was his Maker and heavenly Father, 
and had a right to the tithe of his possessions. 
St. John tells us that Cain slew his brother 
" Because his own works were evil and his 
brother's righteous." (i St. John iii, 12.) 

We ought to believe that God had in some 
way revealed to the family of Adam that the 
right mode of worship was by animal sacri- 
fice, for He would not have punished Cain for 
not knowing what had not been revealed. And in 
confirmation of this fact we find that everywhere 
throughout the world, in the ages before our 
Lord, men were wont to worship God by the 
sacrifice of animals at an altar. Sacrificial wor- 
ship is the traditional worship of the whole 
human race. 



Chapter VI. 
THE ANTEDILUVIANS AND THE FLOOD. 

Cain was angry because his sacrifice was not 
accepted and he slew his brother. Then God 
gave to Adam and Eve another son called Seth. 
Presently we find two distinct families in the 
world, the descendants of Cain, who were god- 
less yet very progressive in worldly civilization, 
and the descendants of Seth who served God and 
kept themselves pure. Among these righteous 
ones was Enoch, who after living on earth 365 
years was translated or taken away by God with- 
out dying. The antediluvians lived to great 
ages, Methuselah attaining the number of 969 
years. We may well believe that the splendid 



13 



physical vigour of the human race deteriorated 
but slowly after the expulsion from Paradise, 
and that only after man had weakened his con- 
stitution by long disobedience to God's laws did 
he become so short-lived as we are now. 

When Holy Scripture (in Gen. VII) speaks of 
the " Sons of God/' and the " Daughters of 
men," many of the Fathers think that it refers to 
the two races of Adam's children, the righteous 
family of Seth, and the wicked family of Cain. 
The righteous men of Seth's family, being at- 
tracted by the beauty of the daughters of Cain, 
took them in marriage, and so were gradu- 
ally corrupted. Whether this be the mean- 
ing of the passage or not, we know that 
eventually things became so bad that of all the 
children of Seth only the family of Noah re- 
mained righteous. Then God determined to send 
the Flood upon them to drown them all. Noah 
was warned to build the Ark, that in it his fam- 
ily and the various sorts of beasts and birds 
might be saved from destruction. We ought to 
believe that the Flood destroyed all the des- 
cendants of Adam except Noah's family. 

After being a year in the Ark Noah 
and his family found the earth dry again, 
and went forth at the command of God to 
repeople it. It is important to note that the 
patriarch preserved the old form of worship 
and the true religion, for so soon as he had gone 
forth from the Ark he " builded an Altar unto 
the Lord; and took of every clean beast, 
and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offer- 
ings on the Altar." 



14 



Chapter VII. 



THE PATRIARCHS. 



After the Flood the human race soon fell into 
sin again, and worshipped false gods. A right- 
eous remnant was left however in the family 
of Heber the great grandson of Shem, one 
of Noah's three sons. The most famous of 
Heber's descendants was Abram who dwelt 
La Ur of the Chaldees. About 2000 years 
before our Lord, God called Abram to leave 
his country and friends, and go to a new 
land which He would give him for his own. 
Abram believed God and obeyed. This new 
land was Canaan or Palestine. There Abram 
dwelt in tents, moving from place to place 
with the great flocks which were his wealth. 
Wherever he went he faithfully worshipped 
God and obeyed Him. God rewarded his faith 
by making a covenant with him that if he would 
remain loyal to Him, He would make the patri- 
arch's descendants His own peculiar people. 



15 

He also changed Abram's name to Abraham 
(Father of a multitude), and gave him the rite 
of circumcision as the outward sign of the cove- 
nant. Thus Abraham became the Father of the 
Faithful, and in his family the true worship of 
God was preserved. 

God rewarded Abraham's faith by giving 
him a son in his old age, Isaac by name, who 
was to inherit the promise after his father's 
death. 

After Isaac, Jacob his younger son inherited 
the promise instead of Esau, the elder, who de- 
spised his birthright and sold it for a mess of 
pottage. God also changed Jacob's name to Is- 
rael (Prince of God), and gave him twelve sons 
who became the fathers of the twelve tribes of 
Israel. 

Joseph, one of Jacob's sons, was so beloved of 
God for his goodness, that his two sons Ephraim 
and Manasseh were both made the fathers of 
tribes along with their uncles, Joseph's brothers. 
Thus Joseph had a double portion in Israel. The 
tribes were still counted as only twelve however 
for Levi was separated from the others to be the 
priestly tribe, especially consecrated to the ser- 
vice of God. 



16 



Chapter VIII. 



THE ISRAELITISH CHURCH. 



Before Jacob's death, in a time of great fam- 
ine, his children and grandchildren, about sev- 
enty in all, went down into Egypt to live, and 
there the children of Israel, as they were called, 
grew to be a nation. After they had dwelt in 
Egypt more than two hundred years God sent 
Moses to deliver them out of the hands of the 
Egyptians who had made slaves of them. By a 
great miracle He enabled them to pass through 
the Red Sea and then they began their march by 
way of the desert of Arabia towards the land of 
Canaan, which God had so long before promised 
to Abraham and his descendants. When they 
reached Mount Sinai God bade Moses come up 
into the mountain and there He talked with him 
face to face and gave him a Law for the children 
of Israel. 

A most conspicuous part of this Law was that 
relating to Divine worship. Moses was com- 
manded to make a tabernacle, or tent, wherein 
the service of God was to be carried on, and 
wherein He would manifest His Presence in an 



17 



especial way. The Tabernacle was to be a tent 
in order that it might be carried about by the 
children of Israel on their journeyings, being 
taken down and set up as necessity required. 
Outside the covered tent a large enclosed but 
uncovered Court was made, wherein the brazen 
Altar on which animals were to be sacrificed 
stood (Ex. xxvii, i). There was also in the 
Court, between the Altar and the covered Taber- 
nacle a Laver of brass, whereat the priests might 
wash their hands and feet (Ex. xxx, 18). The 
Tabernacle proper was divided into two com- 
partments, separated by a curtain or Veil, the 
first called the Holy Place, and the second or in- 
ner one the Most Holy Place. In the Holy 
Place were the small Altar covered with gold 
upon which incense was to be burned (Ex. xxx, 
i), the Holy Table on which Shew-Bread was to 
be placed in two rows upon which also incense 
should be burned, (Lev. xxiv, 7) and a great 
golden Candlestick with seven lamps (Ex. xxv. 
31-39). Into the Holy Place only the Priests 
might go to perform the service of the Sanctuary. 
In the Most Holy place stood the sacred Ark or 
chest in which the two stone tables on which the 
Ten Commandments had been engraved, and oth- 
er most precious treasures of the Israelites were 
kept. Over the Ark was a small golden throne 



18 



called the Mercy-Seat on which God manifested 
His Presence in some mysterious way, probably 
by an unearthly light (Ex. xxv. 10-22). Into the 
Most Holy Place the High Priest alone might 
enter and he only once a year. 

God gave to Moses the fullest directions con- 
cerning the making of all these things, showing 
him patterns of them all, and also concerning 
the worship the children of Israel should offer 
Him. The tribe of Levi was separated from the 
rest of the nation for the exclusive service of the 
Tabernacle; and the family of Aaron, the broth- 
er of Moses, was made the priestly family, so that 
no one might presume to execute the Priest's 
office except he were one of the sons of Aaron, 
nor any one to minister about the tabernacle 
except he were of the tribe of Levi. Over all 
the Priests was one chosen to be High Priest, 
who alone could perform the most solemn Services 
of the Sanctuary and make the great Atonement 
for the people in the Most Holy Place. 

There were sacrifices of many different kinds 
and for various occasions ordained by God to 
be offered in the Tabernacle, and every day both 
in the morning and in the afternoon a lamb was to 
be offered as a burnt-offering at the great Altar 
in the Court, while one of the Priests burnt In- 
cense upon the golden Altar in the Holy Place. 
This was the Daily Sacrifice of the Israelites. 
On the Sabbath the Daily Sacrifice was doubled, 
two lambs being offered in the morning and two 
in the afternoon. 

It is important to notice some of the ceremo- 
nial features of the worship of the Israelites be- 



19 



cause being all ordained expressly by God they 
must signify principles of worship which are 
pleasing to Him. 

The PriesLs were to wear special Vestments, 
some of fine linen, others of rich fabrics of vari- 
ous colours (blue, purple, scarlet, and gold). 
These Vestments were embroidered and set with 
jewels. (Ex. xxviii. ) While the linen garments 
would symbolize the purity with which one should 
serve God, the richer Vestments would fittingly 
express the dignity of God's service and the glory 
which it should have in the eyes of men. 

The Candlestick with its seven lamps con- 
stantly lighted in the Holy Place symbolized 
the Divine Presence in the Sanctuary. 

Incense with its fragrant smoke filling the 
house of God, was a symbol of the intercession 
of our Lord Christ without which man's offer- 
ings never could ascend to heaven, and which 
must therefore always accompany the sacrifices 
made at the great Altar. 

Thus in the Israelitish Church we find the 
principles of worship which God taught to man- 
kind in patriarchal days expanded and devel- 
oped by God Himself. A special Priesthood 
is set apart to offer sacrifice; the Sacrifices them- 
selves are clear types of our Lord's Sacrifice 
upon the Cross; the Vestments of the Priests 
remind men of the solemnity and glory of the 
service of God; the Incense signifies that God's 
mercy will go forth to meet the sacrifices of His 
people and His grace make them acceptable; the 
Lights symbolize the Divine Presence among 
men; the Altar is God's place of meeting with 



20 



His people; the Laver the symbol of the purifi- 
cation of his soul from sin which man must seek 
before he can serve God acceptably; and the 
Most Holy Place with its Mercy Seat is a type 
of heaven itself (Heb. ix, 24). 



Chapter IX. 
THE BIBLE OF THE ISRAELITES. 

Besides making all things for the service of 
the Sanctuary after the pattern which was 
showed him in the Mount, Moses wrote down for 
the use of the Israelites all the more important fea- 
tures of the revelation he had received from 
God. He also, by Divine Inspiration, committed 
to writing the story of Creation and the early 
history of the human race as we have them in 
the book called Genesis. These sacred records 
together with the narrative of the wanderings 
of the Israelites in the desert until the time of 
Moses' death, are called the Pentateuch, or five 
books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Num- 
bers, and Deuteronomy. 

As the national life of the Israelites developed 
in the promised land, other sacred books were 
written by holy men under the guidance of the 
Holy Ghost. Among these are the Historical 
books, which carry the history of the nation 
down from the days of Moses to a period only a 
few hundred years before our Lord; the Pro- 
phetical books, which foretell God's dealings 
with many people, and especially the wonderful 
coming and gracious work of our Lord; and the 
Holy Writings such as the Psalms, Proverbs, 



21 



Ecclesiastes, etc. These various books were 
carefully preserved and copied by the Hebrew 
Scribes, and were probably gathered into one 
collection in the time of Ezra, some 500 years 
before our Lord. This Jewish Bible we call 
the Old Testament. 



Chapter X. 
HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES. 

After the death of Moses Joshua became the 
leader of the children of Israel, and under his 
guidance they took possession of the land of 
Canaan driving out and destroying by the com- 
mand of God the wicked and idolatrous nations 
that had hitherto dwelt there. For about 350 
years after Joshua's time the Israelites were gov- 
erned by Judges, raised up by God from time to 
time in emergencies: but eventually they desired 
a King. So God*gave them Saul for their King. 
After Saul's disobedience and death David 
reigned, and he in turn w T as succeeded by his son 
Solomon, the greatest of Hebrew Kings. David 
had made Jerusalem the capital of the nation, 
and there Solomon built a Temple of stone to 
take the place of the ancient Tabernacle. 

The Temple was constructed upon the model 
of the Tabernacle which Moses had made, but 
was much larger and more magnificent, enor- 
mous amounts of gold, silver, precious stones, 
and other costly materials being used in furnish- 
ing it. Like the Tabernacle it had an outer 
Court containing the great brazen Altar of sacrifice 
and the Laver, while within the building were the 



22 



Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. God showed 
that He accepted this Temple as His earthly 
dwelling place in the stead of the Tabernacle, by 
the fire which came down from heaven and con- 
sumed the sacrifices, and by the Cloud of His 
Presence which filled the house (II. Chron. 
vii, i). Thenceforth until the time of our Lord, 
the Temple at Jerusalem was the one true House 
of God in the world, and the centre of the true 
religion. 

In the time of Solomon's son Rehoboam the 
Israelites were separated into two kingdoms, 
called Israel and Judah. God allowed the na- 
tion to be thus divided but the Hebrew Church 
remained one, and the men of Israel were re- 
quired to worship at Jerusalem as well as the 
men of Judah. No rival Temple was permitted. 
The people of both kingdoms often fell into 
idolatry and were punished by God for their 
sins. Eventually the men of Israel became so 
corrupt that God gave them up to the King of 
Assyria, who carried the chief of them away into 
captivity. So the kingdom of Israel came to an 
end. The Kingdom of Judah was allowed to 
remain a little longer, but some 600 years before 
our Lord it became so idolatrous that it was sur- 
rendered by God to the King of Babylon. He 
took Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple and car- 
ried many of the people, (now calledjews from the 
name Judah,) captive to Babylon. 

They remained in captivity seventy years, and 
then Cyrus the Persian, who had conquered 
Babylon, allowed them to go back to their own 
land and to rebuild the Temple. During the 



23 



500 years between the Babylonish captivity and 
the coming of our Lord the Jews had a hard 
struggle to maintain their independence. Many 
of them left their own country and settled in 
other places, notably in Alexandria in Egypt, 
then a great centre of learning. 

There is a tradition that 250 years before our 
Lord, Ptolemy King of Egypt employed seventy 
learned Jews in his dominions to translate their 
Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, that he might 
have a Greek copy for his great library in Alex- 
andria. In this Greek Old Testament are found 
all the Books of the Old Testament including 
the deutero-canonical books which are often, 
though somewhat irreverently, called " Apocry- 
pha." Our own Church, following in part St. 
Jerome, distinguishes between these books and 
the other books of the Old Testament Scriptures 
in that while it reads them for example of life 
and instruction of manners, it does not (owing to 
the controversy which has existed concerning 
them) apply them to establish any doctrine. Be- 
cause of the number of those employed in the 
translation this Greek Old Testament is called 
the Septuagint (or seventy). It was very highly 
regarded by the Jews and is generally quoted by 
our Lord and His Apostles as Holy Scripture 
in the New Testament. 

j Shortly before the coming of our Lord, to se- 
cure themselves against the Syrians the Jews 
put themselves under the protection of Rome, 
and became tributary to the Roman Emperors 
though for a time retaining the outward form of 
independence, 



24 



Chapter XI. 
THE INCARNATION. 

We have seen how God promised even while 
pronouncing sentence upon Adam and Eve for 
their sin that in due time a Deliverer should 
come, for the Seed of the woman should bruise 
the serpent's head. 

He graciously designed to effect this by bring- 
ing into the world a second Adam, the fountain 
head of a restored Humanity, Who, taking all 
human disabilities except sin, should give battle 
to Satan, conquer him, and by His meritorious 
Cross and Passion win grace from God to 
take up into Himself the old humanity and impart 
to it all the fruits of that conquest. To effect 
all this the new Adam must be more than 
human, He must have Divine energy. 

The Father accomplished it by sending the 
eternal Son into the world to become man. The 
Holy Ghost overshadowed the Blessed Virgin 
Mary, who by her ready obedience, makingrepar- 
ation for the disobedience of the first Mother of 
our race, became God's human instrument in this 
great work,and caused her to bear as a mother the 
eternal Word. Our Lord, the Second Person of 
the Blessed Trinity thus took true human nature 
from the Blessed Virgin uniting it indissolubly 
to His Divine Person. Therefore we say in the 
Creed He " was made man." He could have no 
earthly Father for Pie is a Divine Person; He 
chose to have an earthly Mother that He might 
have true human nature. This we call the my$- 



25 



tery of the Incarnation (or taking flesh). (St. 
John i., 14). 

On Christmas Day our Lord the only Child of 
the Blessed Virgin Mary was born, not a human 
Person, but a Divine Person with a human body, 
a human soul, a human mind, and a human will. 
He was called Jesus {God the Saviour) and 
was known as the Christ or Messiah (literally 
the Anointed one) for so the Jews called the Savi- 
our for Whom they looked. 

At the time of our Lord's birth the Blessed 
Virgin, His Mother, was espoused to St Joseph, 
a holy man who took the part of foster-father to 
our Lord and provided for all His necessities. 
The Blessed Virgin was sanctified by the Holy 
Ghost for her great vocation of bringing our 
Lord into the world, so she is properly called the 
Immaculate (or stainless) Virgin. This is not to 
say that she was immaculately conceived, for the 
Fathers of the Church teach us that she con- 
tracted original sin by inheritance, as all the 
children of Adam contract it, but that the grace 
of God sanctified her before her birth, and that 
she was freed from all sinful desires before our 
Lord was conceived in her womb. She is called 
ever Virgin not because she had no other chil- 
dren, though that of course is true, but because 
her virginity was always preserved, after our 
Lord's birth as before it. Those who are called our 
Lord's brothers and sisters in the Bible were 
probably His cousins, the Hebrews often using the 
names brother and sister in that free way of near 
lelations (Gen. xiv. 16; and xx. 12). The Blessed 
Virgin is also called the Mother of God {Thcotokos. 



26 



in Greek) for though she could only be our 
Lord's Mother as He is Man, yet He Who is her 
Son is God the Word. 

When our Lord was thirty years old He 
began to teach and to preach the Gospel. 
Of the many who followed Him as disciples 
He chose twelve men whom also He named 
Apostles (those sent forth). He likewise did 
many miracles which gave full proof of His 
own Divine commission, and little by little He 
revealed Himself to His followers as the etern- 
al Son of God. This was most difficult for 
them to accept because they could not at first 
grasp the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity as 
the truth concerning the Divine Life. 



Chapter XII. 

THE PASSION OF OUR LORD. 

After teaching for three years and a half 
our Lord was betrayed to His enemies the 
Jewish rulers by Judas, one of His Apostles, 
and was condemned to death by Pontius 
Pilate the Roman Governour of Judaea. When 
He was uplifted upon the Cross, that He might 
die there, He perfectly fulfilled all the sacri- 
fices of the old religion wherewith man had 
worshipped God since the days of Abel, 



27 



For those sacrifices were but types of His sac- 
rifice. They could not take away sin. Our 
Lord came as the representative of our race, the 
second Adam,and offered Himself out of perfect 
obedience to His heavenly Father, a sacrifice for 
all mankind. 

The Father indeed gave Him up to die, fore- 
ordaining Him to free the human race, giving 
Him the will to suffer, and not restraining the 
malice of His persecutors; yet this in no wise 
interfered with the free will of our Lord in His 
Passion. 

His sufferings were more sharp and terrible 
than any that maa has ever endured. He spared 
Himself no pang, He even willed to be left with- 
out that Divine consolation which is given to 
holy souls in their most severe trials. 

So great was the merit of His Passion that it 
is more than sufficient for the salvation of the 
whole world, and as He is the head of the 
Church it avails for all His members. By it we 
are freed from sin and from the tyranny of 
Satan, the eternal penalty our sins deserve ac- 
cording to the Divine justice is paid, we are 
reconciled to God, restored to His favour, and 
the way to heaven is once more open to man. 

And by our Lord's meritorious death the pow r - 
er of death over both our souls and bodies is de- 
stroyed, for the price of sin has been paid and 
death is swallowed up in victory. 



28 

Chapter XIII. 



OUR LORD'S DESCENT INTO HELL. 

When our Lord died on Good Friday His Soul 
was separated from His Body, but we ought not 
to think either His Body or His Soul could be 
separated from His Divinity. His human Body 
in the sepulchre was the Body of God the Son, 
and His human Soul in Hades was the Soul of 
God the Son. While His Body lay in the 
sepulchre His Soul descended into the place of 
departed spirits, in which as in a prison the 
righteous of the old dispensation were detained 
(I St. Peter III, 18-20). Satan had no power to 
hurt these faithful one but he could detain them 
until our Lord had died to set them free. They 
were ''prisoners of hope" (Zech. IX, 12), and 
waited peacefully in Abraham's bosom till their 
Deliverer should come. The Soul of our Lord 
united inseparably to His Divinity, went not 
into hell as a prisoner but as Satan's conqueror. 
He delivered the faithful from the prison and 
gave them the Beatific Vision which He carried 
with Him. Thus was Abraham's bosom changed 
to Paradise for Paradise is where the Vision of 
God is beheld by the faithful, and our Lord's 
word to the penitent thief, "To-day shalt thou 
be with me in Paradise" was fulfilled. 



29 



Chapter XIV. 

THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH. 

Having by His meritorious Cross and Passion 
won the right as man to impart to mankind the 
fruits of His great Sacrifice, our Lord proceeded 
after His Resurrection to develop the means 
whereby those fruits should be made available to 
individual souls. This He did by founding His 
Church. The Church as He established it is a 
society of human beings supplied with a Divine 
constitution and powers. It is thus both Divine 
and human; Divine in its functions, human in its 
membership. We may distinguish three chief 
functions assigned the Church by our Lord. 

t. To preserve safely the supernataral truths 
which He had revealed from heaven, and to make 
these known to all mankind. 

2. To guard the heavenly Means of Grace in- 
stituted by Him for man's salvation, and to 
administer them to human souls. 

3. To carry on continually and in proper man- 
ner the true Form of Worship which He had re- 
vealed as the one well-pleasing to God, that men 
might always be enabled to worship the Most 
High acceptably. 



30 



Chapter XV. 
THE GREAT FIFTY DAYS. 
After our Lord rose from the dead on Easte^ 
Day He remained in the flesh upon earth forty 
days, during which He was fully instruct- 
ing His Apostles concerning His Church which 
they were to plant throughout the world (Acts 
i, 3)- 

At the end of the forty days He ascended up 
into heaven. By His Ascension we understand 
that our Lord Who in His Divine Person was 
always in heaven took up into heaven His hu- 
man nature, so that now He sits at the right 
hand of the Father as man, reigning over His 
Church, and guiding all its affairs until the end 
of the w r orld. We must also believe that the 
human nature of our Lord will remain united to 
the Person of the Divine Word in all eternity. 

Before He ascended He promised to send the 
Holy Ghost upon His Apostles, to teach them, 
enabling them both to remember and also to un- 
derstand all that He had said to them, and 
so guide them into all truth (St. John xiv 

25; xvi > r 3)- 

While they waited the coming of the Holy 

Ghost the Apostles knowing that they had power, 
and that it would be according to our Lord's 
will to choose some one to take the place of 
Judas in the Apostolic college that the full num- 
ber of twelve might begin the planting of the 
Church throughout the world, selected two of 
those whom they considered well qualified foi 
this office. Then they prayed God to guide their 
choice according to His will, and when they had 



31 



cast their lots, Matthias was chosen. Thenceforth 
he was numbered with the eleven selected perso- 
nally by our Lord, and this action of the Apos- 
tles shows us clearly that they understood them- 
selves to be endowed with the fullest power and 
authority to perpetuate the Ministry. 



Chapter XVI. 
THE AUTHORITY OF THE APOSTLES. 
Our Lord meant His Apostles to have all 
spiritual power necessary for man's salvation, 
for He both said : " All power is given unto me 
in heaven and in earth," and u As My Father hath 
sent me; even so send I you." As they were to 
perpetuate His work in the world it w T as neces- 
sary they should have the fullest supernatural 
equipment to effect this. Therefore they were made 
wise to teach men concerning Divine Truth, they 
were given the fullest sacerdotal power to impart 
to men the heavenly Means of Grace, and they 
were commissioned in the most complete way 
to order and maintain such Worship as God 
would have His people render Him. 



Chapter XVII. 
THE COMING OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

On the day of Pentecost {fiftieth) that is the 
fiftieth day after our Lord's Resurrection as the 
Jews reckoned it, the Holy Ghost came down 
upon the Apostles with a sudden great sound as 
of a rushing mighty wind, and in the likeness of 
fiery tongues which lighted upon each of them. 
Immediately they began to teach the truth to 



32 



the multitudes which thronged about them so 
soon as the miracle was noised abroad. And St. 
Peter preached with such effect that three thou- 
sand persons were converted to Christ. When 
these had given evidence of their repentance and 
faith they were baptized, and thus the Christian 
Church began to grow apace (Acts ii, 47). The 
basis on which it rested was this " They contin- 
ued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and 
fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in 
prayers." 

Chapter XVIII. 
THE DIVINITY OF OUR LORD. 

The keystone of the Catholic religion is that 
Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, is the eternal Son 
of God. There have been many assaults upon 
this truth in Christian history. 

Arius taught that our Lord was the best and 
greatest of men, but only a man; that He might 
have fallen as Satan fell; and that it was idolatry 
to give Him Divine honour. This heresy the 
Church condemned in the great Council of 
Nicaea. 

Nestorius taught that our Lord was really two 
persons, one Divine the other human, acting in 
perfect harmony with one another so that they 
appeared as but one. Therefore it was wrong, 
he said, to call the Blessed Virgin the Mother of 
God, because she was but the Mother of the hu- 
man person of Christ and not of His Divine Per- 
son. This heresy the Church condemned in the 
great Council of Ephesus teaching that our Lord 
is not two Persons but one only, a Divine Person, 



33 



and therefore the Blessed Virgin His Mother is 
properly called the Mother of God. 

Other heretics denied that our Lord had a 
true human body, teaching that His Body was 
but a phantom; others denied that He had a hu- 
man mind; others that He had a human will. 

The Sabellians or Patripassians held that the 
Trinity was not real, that God was but one Per- 
son, the Father, but manifested Himself also as 
the Son and the Holy Ghost, so that they taught 
it was the Father Who died upon the Cross. But 
our Lord's true Divinity has ever been suc- 
cessfully maintained by the Church and there 
are abundant reasons why everyone who studies 
the matter at all should believe it. 

There are His statements concerning Him- 
self. Such are " I and my Father are one " (St. 
John x, 30); His association of Himself with the 
Father and the Holy Ghost in the formula He 
gives for Baptism, " In the Name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" (St. Matt, 
xxviii, 19); also that He allowed Himself to be 
put to death just for this reason, as the Jews said 
" Because that Thou, being a man, makest Thy- 
self God " (St. John x, 33 and xix, 7). Thus our 
Lord so evidently claimed to be Divine in the 
highest sense, that (not to speak irreverently) He 
was either an impostor or a fanatic if He were 
not Divine. That He was an impostor no one 
of us could believe, and that He was not deceiv- 
ing Himself is clearly proved by the threefold 
witness of the Prophecies of the Old Testament, 
the Miracles of the New, and the history of the 
Christian Church, 



34 



The Old Testament is full of most striking 
Prophecies concerning our Lord as the Christ 
Whom God should send to save men. Such are 
the words of Isaiah concerning His birth " A vir- 
gin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call 
His Name Immanuel" (Is. vii, 14), also the whole 
of Is. liii, Pss. xxii and lxix, and the marvellous 
prophecy of Daniel foretelling the very time that 
He should come (Dan. ix, 25-27). 

The Miracles wrought by our Lord while they 
do not of themselves demonstrate His Divinity, 
for the Prophets and Apostles also worked mira- 
cles, yet they prove that He was sent from the 
Father, and sustained and helped by Him 
throughout His ministry, which could not have 
been had our Lord exceeded His authority 
in teaching His equality with the Father. 

He also staked all, to use a human expression, 
upon the fact of His Resurrection. He told 
both His disciples and His enemies that they 
should know certainly that He was all He 
claimed to be by the stupendous miracle of ris- 
ing from the dead on the third day after His 
death. In consequence of this all who would 
like to destroy the credibility of our religion 
have sought to deny the truth of the Resurrec- 
tion. But the evidence in the Gospels, in the 
Acts, and in the Epistles of St. Paul is over- 
whelmingly clear and abundant upon the fact of 
the Resurrection 

And indeed if all otner proof were wanting the 
marvellous spread and continuance of the Chris- 
tian Church, based distinctly upon the fact of 
the Resurrection ought to be sufficient, It is 



35 



simply incredible that with all its teachings of 
self-denial and the bearing of the Cross, with no 
rewards in this world, the Catholic religion 
should have flourished as it has had it been 
founded upon a lie or even upon a myth. If our 
Lord did not rise from the dead the existence of 
Christianity in the world to-day is a greater mir- 
acle than the Resurrection itself. 

Chapter XIX. 
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 

The Church having been founded as a society 
in the world by the Apostles at Jerusalem was 
quickly extended by their preaching to other 
parts of the world. They taught men Divine 
truth as they had received it from the lips of the 
Master Himself; they administered to them 
Baptism, the Laying on of hands (or Confirma- 
tion), Holy Communion, Absolution and the 
other Sacraments; and they established every- 
where that form of Worship which our Lord 
had taught them to offer when after the Passover 
Supper He celebrated the Eucharist, and said 
" This do in remembrance of me." 

In the Apostles was lodged the full authority 
of the Christian Ministry. No one of the Twelve 
was above another in power or dignity, but St. 
Peter was at first their leader and spokesman. 
Afterwards by special call from heaven God ad- 
ded St. Paul to the Apostolic College, and he 
tells us that he was in nothing behind the very 
chiefest Apostles (2 Cor. xii, 11). To St. Paul 
was especially committed the preaching of the 
Gospel to the Gentiles. 



36 



The Apostles appear to have added to the 
number of the clergy first by ordaining seven 
Deacons (Acts vi. 5-6). After that we find that 
where bodies of Christians were gathered to- 
gether in different cities, Elders or Presbyters 
were ordained for them (Acts xiv, 23; Titus i, 5), 
who cared for them in spiritual things as their 
pastors, and administered to them the Sacra- 
ments. In the Gentile Churches established by 
St. Paul the settled pastors were also called 
Bishops (overseers), but in later times the name 
Bishop was restricted to those who held the 
highest order in the ministry, while Presbyter 
(subsequently Priest) was used of the second 
order, and Deacon (literally minister) remained 
the name of the lowest order. 

As the Church grew the Apostles consecrated 
suitable men to oversee the congregations of 
Christians in the larger cities, giving them juris- 
diction over the Church in a particular territory, 
afterwards called a diocese. Instances of this 
Diocesan Episcopacy in Apostolic times we have 
in the cases of St. Timothy, set by St. Paul over 
the Church in Ephesus, and St. Titus consecrated 
by the same Apostle to the Bishopric of Crete. 

That this Diocesan Episcopacy was something 
higher than the office of the Presbyterate appears 
from St. Paul's words to St. Titus, " For this 
cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set 
in order the things that are wanting, and ordain 
elders in every city, as I had appointed thee 
(Titus i, 5). 

To the Diocesan Bishops the Apostles gave 
the exclusive right to ordain men to the Diacon- 



37 



ate and Priesthood, as well as to consecrate 
others to the Episcopate, and to bestow the gift 
of the Holy Ghost upon the baptized. 

To the Priests they gave power to preach, to 
administer Baptism, Holy Communion, Absolu- 
tion, Matrimony, and the Unction of the sick, as 
well as to make the great sacerdotal offering of 
the Eucharist, which was the Church's supreme 
act of Worship. 

To the Deacons they gave authority to teach, 
to minister to the poor and sick, to as>ist the 
Priest in the Sanctuary, especially in ad minis 
tering the Chalice at Holy Communion, to ad- 
minister Baptism where a Priest could not be 
had, but not any other Sacrament. 

Chapter XX. 
THE NEW TESTAMENT 

At first the Apostles and their followers taught 
men the truths of Christianity by word of 
mouth. St. Matthew's, the first written Gospel 
which appeared, was probably written 
originally in Hebrew, and then translated 
into Greek, but the Greek version is the only 
one remaining. Soon after St. Mark's Gospel 
appeared, and after that again St. Luke's. 

Meantime St. Paul had begun to write his 
various Epistles. Then probably came the Acts 
of the Apostles and the various other Epistles of 
the New Testament, and also the Revelation of 
St. John. Probably the last book of the New 
Testament written was St. John's Gospel, which 
appeared not much before the end of the first 
century. 

All parts of the Church did not have these 



38 



books at first. They were gradually copied and 
distributed in manuscript however, and were re- 
ceived generally as inspired. Other manuscripts 
were in some places regarded as Holy Scripture 
also, and thus it became necessary for the Church 
to decide which of the holy writings which 
Christians had in their possession in the fourth 
century should be accounted as of Divine inspira- 
tion and therefore the Word of God. This was 
decided in the East by a Synod held at Laodicea, 
A. D. 363, and in the West by the Third Council 
of Carthage A. D. 397, at which the great St. 
Augustine was present. The decrees of both 
these Councils upon the subject of the canonical 
books of Holy Scripture were confirmed by the 
Trullan Council in 692, whose Canon was uni- 
versally received by the Church. These Canon- 
ical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament 
the Church holds as the inspired Word of God. 

Chapter XXL 
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 

The Bible differs fundamentally from all other 
books in the world because of its Inspiration 
By this we mean that the writers of the Old and 
New Testament were so guided by God the Holy 
Ghost for the purpose of revealing Divine truth, 
that they could make no mistakes in what they 
revealed. It is true that we have none of the orig- 
inal manuscripts of the Old Testament books, 
indeed the oldest Hebreiv manuscript of the Pen- 
tateuch is not more than 1200 years old; but 
Greek manuscripts of the whole Bible have come 
down to us from very early Christian times. We 



39 

Cannot tell exactly what errors may have crept 
into these copies of the original inspired Scrip- 
tures, but the general agreement of all the old 
manuscripts found is satisfactory evidence that 
we have not lost any very important part of the 
original revelation. 

So far as the New Testament is concerned 
the manuscripts are so ancient and so general- 
ly in agreement with one another that we may 
be sure we have in all its main features the 
written revelation of Christianity. We do not 
claim infallibility for any translation of the Bible 
or for any manuscript now in existence, but only 
that the original revelation was inspired by the 
Holy Ghost; and so far as we may be sure by the 
general acceptance and critical study of the 
text by the Church, that our copies have pre- 
served the original wording, that far we are 
certain that our Bible is the infallible Word of 
God. 

It is said that there are many things in the 
Bible which are not true, and therefore it can- 
not be Divinely inspired. Such things general- 
ly come under one of two heads; either they are 
things not clearly stated, or they are miraculous 
events. The first sort of dfficulties give way 



40 

before careful study and a right understanding 
of the sacred text, and the latter are not difficul- 
ties at all to anyone who believes in the power of 
God to work miracles and His readiness to do so 
when there is occasion for miraculous interven- 
tion. 

A miracle is a supernatural fact which is evi- 
dent to human sense. God works miracles 
Himself directly, or through the agency ot His 
servants, in order to demonstrate His power, the 
authority of His human representatives; or the 
truth of His revelation. If God be always pres- 
ent in nature, governing the universe according 
to His will, what we call a Miracle may be but a 
normal part of His form of government, only 
marvellous to us because of our limited experi- 
ence of His infinite workings. It must be obvi- 
i >us that if God wants to impress upon the minds 
of men some supernatural fact, it is most reason- 
able that He should do it with some exhibition 
of His power so extraordinary as to cause 
them to recognize that it is indeed from Him. If 
we believe that God personally governs the uni- 
verse as a wise and benevolent Father, it ought 
not to be hard to believe also that upon occasion 
He may supernaturally declare His will and so 
sanction the things done by His servants in His 
Name. 



41 

Chapter XXII. 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 

The political divisions of the great Roman 
Empire largely determined the territorial divis- 
ions of early Christendom. In Asia Minor many 
flourishing Churches looked to St. John as their 
head. In Egypt all the lesser Churches looked 
to the great Church of Alexandria as their 
mother. In Syria Antioch was the chief Chris- 
tian city. In Europe Rome, as the seat of the 
imperial government and the city in which both 
St. Peter and St. Paul had suffered martyrdom, 
was more conspicuous than any other. Christian 
Churches also flourished in France (then Gaul), 
in Spain, in North Africa and in Britain. 

But it was not until nearly 300 years after 
Christ, under the reign of Constantine, that 
Christianity throughout the world became free 
to teach and to worship according to its tradi- 
tions. Before that the Church had been perse- 
cuted first by Jew and then by heathen, and 
oppressed in every possible way.. But so soon 
as Constantine not only tolerated but encouraged 
the free practice of Christianity, it grew rapidly 



42 



in wealth, numbers and influence; magnificent 
Churches were built, and the pomp and glory of 
Eucharistic Worship everywhere set forth. 

Whenever any question arose which could not 
easily be settled by a local Church, the matter 
was carried to the Provincial Synod, composed 
of all the Bishops from that part of the world. 
If it proved too hard a matter for the Provincial 
Synod to solve, a General Council of all the 
Bishops of Christendom was called, to determine 
the matter by universal consent. 

The first of these General Councils was held 
at Nicaea in Asia Minor, in the year 325. There 
were present 318 Bishops from various parts of 
the world, and they chose for president Hosius, 
Bishop of Cordova in Spain. The matter to be 
formally pronounced upon was that of the Di- 
vinity of our Lord, which Arius, a priest of Alex- 
andria in Egypt, had denied. The 318 Bishops 
first satisfied themselves concerning just what 
Arius had taught; then one after another bore 
witness to the faith that had been handed down 
in his own local Church from the days of the 
Apostles. With the greatest unanimity the 
Fathers of the Church declared it had ever been 
taught that our Lord was truly Divine. And to 
guard this great doctrine from any disparage- 
ment they set forth the larger part of that which 
is ordinarily known as the Nicene Creed. This 
Creed which declares our Lord to be "of one 



43 



substance with the Father," was sent to all the 
local Churches throughout the world. When 
all of these had received it as the true faith of 
the Church, the Council and its Creed were 
called Oecumenical (or universal) and became of 
binding authority on all Christians. 

Other Oecumenical Councils were held at va- 
rious times in the first eight centuries of the 
Church, the more conspicuous of them being 
the second, held at Constantinople A. D. 381, 
which gave us the Nicene Creed in its completed 
form; the third, held at Ephesus A.D. 431, which 
condemned the heresy of the Nestorians (see 
Chap. XVII); and the fourth at Chalcedon A. D. 
451, which condemned the heresy of Eutyches. 

Chapter XXIII. 

THE GREAT PATRIARCHATES. 

We have seen how the Churches in certain 
great cities came to have special prominence be- 
cause of the political importance of the cities, 
or because of their association with some of the 
Apostles. At first the Churches in the more con- 
spicuous places were simply regarded as chief in 
their several provinces, but about the fourth 
century a few of the Bishops came to be regarded 
as more than Metropolitans, or chief Bishops of 
a province, and to be called Patriarchs or chiefs 
over Metropolitans. The Sees (or Bishoprics) of 
these Patriarchs had the patriarchal dignity, 
attached to them by common consent. Such at 
first were Antioch in Syria, Alexandria in Egypt, 
and Rome in Europe. By the authority of the 



44 



Council of Chalcedon two others were added to 
these three, Jerusalem, because of its association 
with our Lord, and Constantinople, because it 
was new Rome. The Council of Chalcedon de- 
clared the second place among the Patriarch- 
ates to belong to Constantinople, the first be- 
longing to Rome because that city was the capital 
of the world. The Roman legates, representing 
the West, protested against this however, and the 
Pope would not admit that theprecedence of Rome 
was due to its political importance, but to the 
fact that it was the See of Peter, to whom our 
Lord said "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I 
will build my Church". Since the time of Leo 
the Great A. D. 450 the Popes have always claimed 
the primacy of the world as the successors of St. 
Peter, but the Greeks have refused to allow the 
claim. 

The Eastern Churches were for centuries dis- 
tracted with heresies, and weakened by internal 
dissensions as well as by the waning power of 
the Eastern Empire, while the Roman Church 
was almost always orthodox, and when the West- 
ern Empire fell before the barbarians, the Papacy 
became the great preserver of order, and the 
hope of Western Christendom, and so vastly in- 
creased its influence. The primacy which was 
claimed for Rome by the earlier Pope3 soon grew 
into a claim of supremacy over the whole Church, 
so that instead of being First among Equals, as 
in Leo's time, the Bishop of Rome claimed to be 
Supreme over All, the Vicar of Christ upon earth, 
as in Gregory VII's time. 

Now while it is perfectly reasonable that the 



45 



Bishops ot Rome, as the occupants of the Apos' 
folic See should have a primacy over the whole 
Church, such for example as the Archbishop of 
Canterbury has over the Church of England, the 
present Roman claim to sovereign supremacy be- 
cause of our Lord's words to St. Peter is illogical 
and not sustained by history. 

1. There is no evidence in the New Testament 
that St. Peter exercised, or thought that he 
possessed any supremacy over the other Apostles, 
and there is clear evidence that St. Paul at least 
was fully on an equality with hiiru 

2. There is no evidence that St. Peter handed 
down even the primacy which he had in the 
Apostolic College to the occupants of the See of 
Rome. 

3. There is clear evidence, from the case of St. 
Cyprian, that for the first three hundred years 
the supremacy of Rome was not acknowledged 
even in Western Christendom. 



Chapter XXIV. 
SEPARATION BETWEEN EAST AND WEST. 

After the Council of Chalcedon (A. D. 451) 
there was constant friction between the Eastern 
Churches and Rome, and in the ninth century a 
very serious breach. It was not until the year 
1054 however that the final separation occurred. 
Then when the Patriarch of Constantinople, who 
had declared the Latin Mass invalid because the 
Western Church used unleavened bread, refused 
to retract his error, the Papal envoys who had 
gone to Constantinople solemnly excommunicated 
him, and all who adhered to him. Although 



46 



several attempts have been made to heal tii^ 
breach, all of them have failed, and the Oriental 
and Latin Christians seem now to be farther apart 
than ever. The old Patriarchates, Constantinople, 
Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, all fell under 
the dominion of the Turks, and the Christians 
in them have preserved their faith and practice 
with great difficulty. ^In Greece however the 
Church is now free, and the great Russian Church 
has made Eastern Christianity again a power in 
the world. There are probably nearly 100,000,000 
Christians in the Russian, Greek and Oriental 
Churches which are not in communion with 
Rome. 



Chapter XXV. 
THE EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH. 
How Christianity first came into ancient 
Britain cannot be positively determined. Some 
have thought that St. Paul preached there, and 
others that the Roman soldiers who were 
stationed there, many of whom were Christians ? 
were the means of making the faith known. It 
is certain however that in the fourth century 
Christianity was well established in what is now 
known as England. There were Bishops from 
Britain at the Councils of Aries (A. D. 314), 
Xicaea (A. D. 325), and Sardica (A. D. 347). So 
far as we can ascertain this early British Church 
was largely influenced by Gallic (French) Christ- 
ianity, which was originally Oriental in type, the 
Church being planted in Gaul by discioles of St. 
lohn from Asia Minor. 



47 



After the Roman armies had been withdrawn 
from Britain in the fifth century, the Picts and 
Scots from the North made such serious inroads 
into the country that the Britons called upon the 
Saxons to help them. These warlike people find- 
ing the country pleasant soon took possession of 
it for themselves, and the ancient Britons were 
driven back into the mountain fastnesses of Wales 
and Cornwall. The Saxons were heathens and 
so Britain seemed lost to the faith of Christ. 
The Britons kept up the practice of their religion, 
but made no effort to convert their conquerors. 
This was not done until Pope Gregory the Great 
sent over Augustine the Monk with forty com- 
panions to preach the Gospel to the Saxons in 
Britain, A. D.596. Augustine converted many of 
the Saxons and subsequently was so aided by mis- 
sionaries from the old British and Irish Churches 
that the whole of England was reclaimed to the 
faith. 

It was Pope Gregory's intention that Augustine 
should be Archbishop of the English, therefore 
Augustine went to France and was consecrated 
to the Episcopate by the Bishop of Aries. When 
he had informed the Pope of this, the latter sent 
him the Pallium, or archiepiscopal mantle, in 
recognition of Augustine's primatial authority 
in England. As a result of Augustine's mis- 
sion the influence of the Papacy was established 
in England from the first, and as time went on 
the Popes constantly endeavoured to increase it, 
and to acquire the same supremacy over the 
Church of England they had over the other 
European Churches. There w T as constant resist- 
ance made to this in England, sometimes by the 



48 



kings, sometimes by the people. For example, 
in A. D. 679, Papal letters in favour of Wilfrid, 
Archbishop of York, were not recognized in 
England, and but scant respect was paid them 
by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. At the 
Council of Cloveshoo A. D. 747, Pope Boniface 
endeavoured to get the Papal authority recog- 
nized, but in spite of the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury's efforts in the Pope's favour the Council 
refused to acknowledge any higher Court of 
Appeal than the Archbishop in Synod. The 
Constitutions of Clarendon A. D. 1164, forbade 
appeals to Rome, and Stephen Langton, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury*, A. D. 1208, along with 
other Bishops, wholly ignored the Papal inter- 
dict upon England. But the Papal authority in- 
creased little by little until the time of King 
Henry VIII. 



Chapter XXVI. 
THE ANGLICAN REFORMATION. 
Henry VIII having become tired of his first 
queen, Catharine of Aragon, desired to be 
free to marry another. He therefore asked the 
Pope to declare his marriage invalid as having 
been contracted within the forbidden degrees. 
(He had married his sister-in-law.) It is true 
that he had had a Papal dispensation to marry, 
but he now sought to have this dispensation set 
aside, and the marriage declared void ab initio. 
When the Pope refused to do this, the King broke 
with him and declared that henceforth he should 
have no more jurisdiction over the Church of 



49 



England. The Church of England had already 
taken the.first step in rejecting the Papal Suprem- 
acy, for Convocation, the Church's Parliament, 
had in A. D. 1531- voted that the Annates (certain 
Church taxes) should not be sent out of the king- 
dom. Henry's motive for his act was bad 
enough, but we cannot doubt that this setting 
free of the old Church of England from the yoke 
of the Papal supremacy was providentially 
ordered for beneficent ends. 

The rejection of the Papal supremacy was 
cordially accepted by a large majority of the 
Bishops and Priests of the Church of England, 
and upon it soon followed the desire on the part 
of many to free the Church also from such errors 
and abuses as had crept into it during the middle 
ages. The first great change however that was 
made was the publishing of the English Prayer 
Book in Edward VPs reign, A. D. 1549. This young 
King was largely under the influence of the 
Protestant party that was growing up in England 
and which threatened to overthrow the old relig- 
ion entirely. Before very much mischief had 
been done Edward VI died, and was succeeded 
by his sister Mary, who restored the old Latin 
Service books and acknowledged again the Papal 
supremacy. 

But after a short reign Mary was succeeded by 
Elizabeth who refused to acknowledge the 
authority of the Pope and who restored the 
English Prayer Book. For twelve years (1558 to 
1570) the Pope sought in various ways to have 
his supremacy acknowledged over the Church 
ot England, and then, finding the effort hopeless 



50 



he formally excommunicated the Queen and all 
who adhered to her, and commanded all who 
recognized the supremacy of Rome as lawful to 
separate themselves from the national Church 
and to worship in separate buildings. Thus was 
established the Roman schism in England. It 
found but few adherents for the vast majority of 
the clergy and people remained loyal f o the old 
Church. 



Chapter XXVII. 
THE PRAYER BOOK 

From the days of the Apostles the great public 
Service of the Church has been the celebration 
of the Eucharist. In the Oriental Churches it 
was rendered in the Greek tongue, and with 
much elaborate ceremonial. It was called the 
Liturgy (that is Service). In the West Latin soon 
became the language of the Church, and the 
Eucharistic Service was generally known as the 
Mass. The origin of this name is not perfectly 
clear, but it was used by St. Ambrose in the 
fourth century. It is in Latin missa, and is used to 
express the great public act of Worship of the 
Church. 

Besides the Liturgy or Mass there were other 
Offices of prayer and praise used in the Church 
chiefly by the clergy and persons in religious 
communities. The chief of these were the seven 
canonical Hours, viz., Matins, Prime, Terce, 
Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. These 
are also called Choir Offices to distinguish 
them from the Mass which is the Altar Office, 



51 



they being said or sung in the Choir and the 
Mass in the Sanctuary of the Church. These 
Choir Offices consist chiefly in the recitation of 
the Psalms of the Psalter, with Lessons from 
Holy Scripture, Hymns and Prayers. 

After the rejection of the Papal supremacy 
in Henry VIIFs time, it was proposed to have 
some of the Offices of the Church in English 
instead of Latin. It was also thought by many 
to be desirable that the lay-people should have 
part in some of the Choir Offices as well as in 
the Mass. Although in Henry's reign only the 
Litany and some private devotions of the people 
were done into English, at the very beginning of 
Edward VFs reign steps were taken to have full 
public Services in English. So some of the old 
Church Hours were rearranged for two public 
Choir Offices, Matins and Evensong (or Vespers). 
Matins included a portion of the Psalter, two 
Lessons, the Te Deum or Benedicite and the Ben- 
edictus, together with various Versicles and Col- 
lects. Evensong had also its Psalter, Lessons and 
Collects, with the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis 
as Canticles. The old Latin Mass was also done 
into English, appearing in much the form in which 
we have it now. These three public Services 
formed the basis of the English Prayer Book 
called the First Prayer Book of King Edward 
VI. 

It went into use by authority of the Church .en- 
forced by the government on Whitsunday 1549, and 
remained in use about three years. The people of 
England were not then divided into various sects, 
but knew themselves to be members of the one 



52 

Church of England; therefore it was natural 
that the King should enforce the Service Book 
which the Church had adopted. 

Then the Protestant influence had so grown in 
England that it was proposed to publish a new 
Prayer Book of less Catholic tone than that of 
1549. This book of 1552, called Edward VPs 
Second Book, was never authorized by the 
Church and had hardly been printed before the 
King died, and was succeeded by Queen Mary, 
who restored the old Latin Mass and Office 
books. 

When Elizabeth succeeded to the throne the 
Catholic and Protestant parties in the Church of 
England were found to be so evenly balanced 
that it seemed best to those in authority to put 
out a Prayer Book which was a compromise be- 
tween the first and second books of Edward VI, 
being less Catholic than the former and more 
Catholic than the latter. 

Elizabeth's book, somewhat changed for the 
better, remained in use during the reigns of James 
I and Charles I and then was suppressed by the 



53 

Puritans, who did all they could to destroy the 
Church of England. After the restoration 
of Charles II, a Conference was held at the Savoy 
Palace in London (A. D. 1661) between some of 
the Puritan Ministers and the Clergy of the 
Church of England. It was thought that the old 
Prayer Book might be restored in such modified 
form that the Protestant party could accept it 
and remain in the Church. But the Puritans 
would listen to nothing short of the entire Pro- 
testantizing of the Prayer Book, so that the Con- 
ference proved fruitless and the Bishops and 
Priests of the Church had to proceed by them- 
selves. They arranged and published the present 
English Prayer Book which began to be used 
in 1662. So far as ceremonial is concerned it has 
a rubric directing that the Ornaments of the 
Church and of her Ministers which were legally 
in use in the second year of King Edward VI, 
shall be retained and be in use. This is the 
famous ''Ornaments Rubric." 



54 



Chapter XXVIII. 

OUR AMERICAN PRAYER BOOK. 

Immediately after the war of independence the 
Church of England in the United States was in 
an especially unfortunate position, having no 
Bishops of its own, and being looked upon with 
disfavour by most of the people because of its 
association with England. The Colonies were 
part of the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London 
acting by appointment of the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, and the result of the war 
could not release the clergy from their ec- 
clesiastical obedience. Naturally however Amer- 
icans going to England were not looked upon 
with much favour there, so that when Dr. Sea- 
bury, who had been elected by the clergy of 
Connecticut their Bishop, came to the mother 
country to receive consecration, he failed to ob- 
tain it from the English Bishops, who feared 
a conflict with the civil authority. Then seeking 
it in Scotland he was more successful, and was 
consecrated by three of the Bishops of Scotland 
Nov. 14th 1784. Subsequently Drs. White, Mad- 
ison and Provoost received consecration at 
the hands of the English Bishops. As White 
and Provoost were consecrated by both the Arch- 



55 

bishops, who thus gave them jurisdiction, and 
the Bishop of London also assisted at the conse- 
cration of Madison, and as Seabury was recog- 
nized by all of them, the Church in this country 
became autonomous by the canonical action of 
its former ecclesiastical rulers. 

Bishop Seabury had promised the Scottish 
Bishops that he would endeavour to introduce 
the Scottish Liturgy in his Diocese. This differed 
materially from the English Liturgy in having 
the verbal "Oblation" of the Holy Gifts restored 
to its true place after the words of Institution,and 
also in having the "Invocation" of the Holy 
Spirit; this last however in the Oriental position 
after the Consecration. There were differ- 
ences of opinion as to the framing of the Amer- 
ican Prayer Book, some in the lower House of 
Convention holding that the Church in 
this country should start anew, others that 
the English Prayer Book should be taken, as the 
basis, and modified only so far as the changed 
circumstances of the Church in this country re- 
quired. This last idea prevailed, being insisted 
upon by the House of Bishops, and it is set forth 
in the Preface to our Prayer Book, though 
there are a number of points in which the Amer- 
ican Book differs considerably from the English. 
Chief among these are the following of ^he Scotch 



56 



form of consecrating the Eucharist rather 
than the English, the omission of the Creed of 
St. Athanasius, and the use of the name Protest- 
ant Episcopal upon the title-page. The Church 
of England has never called itself Protestant. 
This American Prayer Book was formally ratified 
by General Convention A. D 1789, and came into 
use October 1st 1790. 



Chapter XXIX. 
SECTS. 

The Church as the Society which our Lord 
founded upon earth through His Apostles was 
originally one in outward communion as well as 
in its common Faith, Ministry, Sacraments and 
Form of Worship. Very early in its history 
however heresies sprang up. A heresy is a denial 
of some article of the Faith propounded by the 
Church for acceptance of the faithful. The guilt 
of heresy belongs to individuals in proportion to 
their wilfulness in taking part in such denials. 
The most conspicuous of all the early heresies was 
that of the Arians, who denied our Lord's Divin- 
ity. In many cases the Church had to formally 
cast out heretics from its communion, and then 
they were wont to found sects for themselves. 
A sect is a society separated from the commun- 
ion of the Church. Schismatics (the members of 
sects) have not always been heretical; the Dona- 
tists in old times held to the Catholic Creed, but 
were separated from the Catholic body. Yet as 
a rule schismatics have been heretical, their 



57 



heresy causing them to separate from the 
Church and found sects of their own. 

After the first four centuries schisms and 
heresies were comparatively few and unimport- 
ant for a thousand years, though during that 
time the separation between the Eastern and 
Western Communions occurred. Then in the 
sixteenth century came the great outbreak of 
Protestantism. The first of the Protestant sects 
to arise was that of the Anabaptists (that is bap- 
tizing asecond time). These people held that none 
but Adults might be validly baptized. The suc- 
cessors of this sect are now generally called 
Baptists. They reject the Baptism of Infants. 

A little later the Lutheran body arose, founded 
by Martin Luther; and then the Calvinists, so- 
called from John Calvin, from which sect the 
modern Presbyterians have sprung. It would be 
impossible to enumerate all the various sects, 
which have arisen since Luther's time; and are 
constantly being added to. Most conspicuous 
among them however is the great Methodist sect 
The Methodist body was founded originally not 
as a sect but as a society in the Church of England 
by John Wesley a Priest of the Church. The 
society even in Wesley's lifetime became strongly 
Protestant in feeling, and after his death left the 
Church and set up as an independent denomina- 
tion. 

These various Protestant sects all deny one or 
other of the Articles of the Creed, and many of 
those which they do not literally deny they in- 
terpret in a sense different from that in which 
they have always been held in the Catholic 



58 

Church. Even if here and there a sect could 
be found which held the faith entire, there is 
none that has not lost the true Ministry which 
can only be perpetuated by the Bishops of the 
Church. With the loss of the valid Ministry of 
course there follows the loss of all the Sacra- 
ments except Baptism and Matrimony. Of 
Baptism the Church has always held that lay- 
Baptism was valid though not to be resorted 
to except w r here no Priest could be had. And of 
Matrimony it holds that it may be validly con- 
tracted without the co-operation of any clergyman 
The Protestant sects have also wholly failed to 
maintain that Form of Worship, the Eucharistic 
Sacrifice, which our Lord enjoined; indeed they 
could not have it if they so desired (as in the 
case of the Irvingites) not having any valid 
Priesthood. Thus of the four fundamentals of 
the true religion of our Lord, the Nicene Faith, 
the Apostolic Ministry, the Catholic Sacraments 
and the Eucharistic Form of Worship, the Pro- 
testant sects lack entirely all except the first, 
and it is very doubtful whether any of them even 
maintain the Nicene Creed in its integrity. 

Chapter XXX. 

THE SACRAMENTS (IN GENERAL.) 
The Sacraments (derived from Sacramentum, an 
oath) are often called Means of Grace. Grace is 
literally that which comes to one freely, as a gift 
(gratis), in distinction from what one has earned. 
In the Church the name is applied to that super- 
natural help which God gives us for our sanctifi- 
cation through the merits of our Lord Christ 



59 



God calls His people to be Saints, that is abso- 
lutely holy and so capable of enjoying His Pres- 
ence in heaven, and as we could not of our own 
powers attain to the saintly life, He bestows 
upon us this supernatural assistance of His 
grace, administered to us by the Holy Ghost 
chiefly through the Sacraments of the Church. 

A Sacrament is an outward sign conveying 
supernatural grace to the soul. Three things 
are necessary to make it complete, a visible sign, 
a distinct gift of grace, and that it has been or- 
dained by Christ Himself. The Church of Eng- 
land and our own Church in one of the Articles 
of Religion make a distinction between "Sacra- 
ments of the Gospel" and those which are "com- 
monly called Sacraments". The Sacraments of 
the Gospel, Baptism and the Eucharist, are so 
called because in their case the outward form of 
administration was expressly enjoined by our 
Lord; therefore there could be no valid adminis- 
tration of these Sacraments unless in Baptism 
water were used with the spoken formula our 
Lord gave " In the Name of the Father and of 
the Son and of the Holy Ghost", and unless in 
the Eucharist bread and wine were used with 
our Lord's words of Institution. 

Those "commonly called Sacraments" (to use 
the language of the Article) are Confirmation, 
Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and the Unction of 
the Sick. The Article says that they differ from 
the Sacraments of the Gospel "for that they have 
not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of 
God". This means that the particular grace of 
each of these Sacraments is not tied by God's 



60 



immediate ordinance to any specific outward 
sign, but that the outward sign may vary in dif- 
ferent parts of the Church. For example, the 
Orthodox Confession of the Russian Church 
says that Confirmation was at first administered 
by laying on of hands, which was changed by the 
Church afterwards to oil. 

The Anglican Article at first sight seems to 
disparage the five "commonly called Sacraments'" 
saying that they have grown "partly of the cor- 
rupt following of the Apostles, partly are states 
of life allowed in the Scriptures." Now while 
Matrimony and Orders may properly be called 
states of life, to say that they are allowed in the 
Scriptures does not imply any disparagement of 
them; indeed the Prayer Book has its mostsolemn 
Ordinal and Form of the Solemnization of Mat- 
rimony, as well as its Order of Confirmation. 
To confine the Unction of the Sick to the case of 
those who are in extre?nis seems to be a corrup- 
tion of Apostolic usage, as does also the delay of 
Confirmation until the baptized have come to 
mature years. 



Chapter XXXI. 
BAPTISM. 

Baptism may only be administered validly 
with water applied to the person to be baptized 
in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of 
the Holy Ghost. Of course the evident intentionoi 
administering the Sacrament (that is the doing it 
seriously and not in jest) is also necessary. The 
minister of Baptism should properly be a Priest, 



61 



but a Deacon may lawfully baptize if no Priest 
can be bad; and, in case of necessity, as in great 
danger of sudden death, anyone, man, woman or 
child, Catholic or Protestant, even an unbaptized 
person, if he or she have the intention of admin- 
istering the Sacrament and use water with the 
proper form of words, may validly baptize. And 
it is a most imperative duty that one should not 
allow any infant, or adult person who desires 
this Sacrament, to die unbaptized. The Church 
fully recognizes the validity of Baptism per- 
formed by Protestant ministers if there is proof 
that water was used in the Name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. The 
particular way in which the water is applied is 
not essential provided it certainly comes in con- 
tact with the person of the candidate. In the 
early Church immersion was the ordinary mode 
of Baptism, as it is still in the Oriental Com- 
munions, but the pouring of water upon the head 
of the candidate, as is the ordinary usage of 
Western Christendom, is quite as valid, and was 
often the mode used in primitive times when 
there was good reason for not immersing the 
person. 

The Baptists claim that no one can be validly 
baptized unless he be immersed, and from the 
Bible they quote the case of our Lord baptized 
in the Jordan, and that of the Ethiopian eunuch 
baptized by St. Philip (Acts viii). In the case of 
our Lord there is nothing to show that He was 
immersed in the Jordan. Indeed in one of the 
very oldest pictures of His Baptism, in the Bap- 
tistery of St. John's Church, Ravenna, dating 



62 



from about A. D. 450, He is represented as stand- 
ing in the Jordan, waist deep, while St. John 
Baptist standing near, pours water upon His 
head. This, long before there was any contro- 
versy on the subject, shows that the early Chris- 
tians did not regard immersion as essential 
to Baptism. In the case of the Ethiopian eunuch 
and St. Philip we are told that ''They went down 
both into the water", and the next verse says, 
"When they were come up out of the water", yet 
these words do not of any necessity mean that 
the eunuch was immersed, as they could be used 
quite accurately had he only gone ankle-deep 
into thf* water, and had then been baptized by 
affusion (pouring). If the words be taken to 
mean immersion only, then St. Philip must have 
immersed himself also at the same time. 

The Sign of the Cross is used in administering 
baptism as an appropriate symbol of the entrance 
of the baptized person into the service of our 
Lord Christ. Sponsors, or Godparents, are also 
required by the Church in the case of Infant 
Baptism to promise on the child's behalf that it 
shall be taught its Christian obligations and that 
it will fulfil them when it comes to years of dis- 
cretion. Godparents are not necessary of course 
to the validity of Baptism, but they should al- 
ways be had if possible and should be Communi- 
cants of the Church. It is their duty to watch 
over the child's spiritual welfare, to pray for it, 
and if its parents fail for any reason to bring it 
up as a Christian to do whatever they can to 
make up for that failure. 

Some schismatics hold that no one should be 



63 



brought to Baptism until he is old enough to 
understand the nature of the Sacrament, and to 
take upon himself intelligently its obligations. 
From the very beginning however the Catholic 
Church has always taught that infants should be 
baptized. Our own 27th Article says 'The Bap- 
tism of young Children is in any wise to be re- 
tained in the Church as most agreeable with the 
institution of Christ. " Indeed in the earliest 
times, as in the Oriental Communions at the 
present day, it was the rule to give Confirma- 
tion and Holy Communion to infants as well 
as Baptism; the Church holding that God's 
grace would always operate in the soul unless 
hindered by conscious sin. Our Lord most 
clearly taught the duty of bringing infants to 
Baptism when He said that except one " be born 
of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God " (St. John iii, 5), and 
"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of 
God" (St. Mark x, 14). 

In order to understand rightly the effects of 
Baptism we must remember that man was orig- 
inally created innocent, and after that fell into 
wilful sin. In consequence of Adam's sin all 
mankind inherit a guilty nature, being alienated 
from God, and constantly inclined towards evil. 
This inherited guilt, accompanied as it is 
with a certain weakness of the will to enforce 
obedience, and a darkened moral sense, we call 
original or birth sin. It is also true that besides 
natural innocency God gave to Adam in Para- 
dise supernatural holiness, which enabled him to 



64 

hold converse with his Maker. Baptism washes 
away Ml guilt of original sin as well as of all 
actual sin in the case of adults who come with 
repentance and faith to receive it, and also re- 
stores to the soul supernatural righteousness, 
rendering it well-pleasing to God, although a 
certain proneness to sin and weakness of soul 
remain in the baptized. The gift of Baptism 
is properly called Regeneration, or the new 
birth. Everyone by being baptized is spiritual- 
ly born over again, being made a member of 
Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of 
the kingdom of heaven. Thus the germ of the 
spiritual life is imparted at the Font and it 
is the work of grace, through the Sacraments, 
if the human will co-operates with it, to develop 
this spiritual life into the measure of the 
stature of the fulness of Christ, the perfection 
of the Saints. 

Baptism also admits to the Church, so that we 
become Christians and members of the Church 
by this Sacrament and not by any formal profes- 
sion of Christ in mature years, 



65 

The Church by no means teaches that those 
who die unbaptized through no fault of their 
own, as the heathen, and infants whose parents 
have neglected to bring them to the Font, are 
lost. It only teaches that so far as our Lord has 
revealed His will to us, no one can attain the 
supernatural life of heaven except through Bap- 
tism. Without Baptism, so far as it has been 
revealed to us, man remains in the state of 
nature. That those who Jive loyally to the light 
given them by conscience and natural religion, 
yet have never known of baptism, may attain to 
natural beatitude in the world to come we need 
not doubt. And that unbaptized infants shall 
suffer no sensible punishment in eternity we may 
reasonably believe. Some commentators think 
a natural beatitude to be referred to in the Bible 
when it speaks of the new earth which is to be 
hereafter as well as new heavens (2 St. Pet. iii ? 
13; and Rev. xxi, 1). 



66 



Chapter XXXII. 
CONFIRMATION. 

Confirmation is that Sacrament of the Church 
whereby the baptized are made strong (confirmed) 
with the fulness of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. 
While baptism makes those who receive it 
children of God, Confirmation makes them 
soldiers of God, providing them with full spirit- 
ual armour and furnishing them with all spirit- 
ual weapons to fight successfully against sin. 
Thus while it is a Sacrament distinct from Bap- 
tism it is the natural completion and perfecting 
of the baptismal gift for those who have grown 
old enough to be morally responsible and so 
liable to temptation. 

In the Acts of the Apostles (chap, viii.) we 
read that after St. Philip the Deacon had con- 
verted and baptized many persons in Samaria, 
the Apostles which were at Jerusalem sent unto 
them St. Peter and St. John, who having prayed 
for the converts laid their hands on them and 
they received the Holy Ghost. (See also Acts 
xix. 6.) In Apostolic times it would appear 
therefore that the manner of administering this 
Sacrament was by the laying on of hands. To 
this there was added very early in the history of 



67 

the Church the use of Chrism (or anointing 
with oil,) and this became universal. The 
Churches of the Anglican Communion have 
since the Reformation discontinued the Chrism, 
using only the laying on of hands; the Latin 
Church uses both the laying on of the Bishop's 
hand and the anointing with Chrism; and the 
Eastern Churches use only the oil. 

The minister of Confirmation is properly a 
Bishop, for as this Sacrament conveys the ful- 
ness of Divine strength to the soul, marking its 
spiritual maturity, it is appropriately adminis- 
tered by one who has the fulness of ministerial 
power. In the Oriental Communions however 
Priests administer Confirmation with *oil that 
has been consecrated by the Bishop for this pur- 
pose. This is because the Orientals hold that 
Confirmation (as well as First Communion) 
should follow Baptism immediately, and as it 
would be impossible for a Bishop to be present 
at every Baptism the Priests administer Confir- 
mation as his representatives with Chrism set 
apart by him for it. 

This Oriental practice of confirming immedi- 
ately after Baptism is undoubtedly primitive, 
and the Latin custom of delaying Confirmation 
until children are from seven to twelve years of 
age grew up gradually from the impossibility in 



68 



many cases of bringing the candidates at once to 
the Bishop, (the Western Church being very 
strict about allowing only Bishops to confirm). 
As Confirmation is intended to fit for their spir- 
itual warfare those who have to meet temptation, 
it would seem not unreasonable that it should 
be deferred until a child was old enough to un- 
derstand its own moral responsibility. It is very 
difficult however to say at what age this respon- 
sibility and therefore the possibility of commit- 
ting actual sin begins. The Latin Church 
teaches that children of seven are old enough to 
be confirmed. Our own Communion holds that 
they should have come to " years of discretion," 
that is that they should be able to distinguish 
between right and wrong or in other words to 
be morally accountable. This would seem to be 
much the same as the Latin teaching. Practi- 
cally few children in our own Communion are 
brought to Confirmation under twelve, and this 
is a great evil. For if the Sacrament was 
meant to be the special defence of the soul, in 
its battle with temptation, it surely ought to be 
administered so soon as the soul becomes liable 
to temptation. 

The Anglican custom of late Confirmation has 
grown out of the notion that when children 
reach a sufficient age to understand the nature 
of their Christian obligations they should take 
upon themselves their baptismal vows borne for 
them up to that time by their Godparents. This 
formal assumption of one's baptismal vows is no 
real part of Confirmation, but one of the forms 
associated with it by the Anglican and 



69 



some Churches of the Roman Obedience. 
Every one is bound by his baptismal vows so 
soon as he is able to understand their nature, 
whether he be confirmed or not. Confirmation 
is God's gift to us, not something we do for 
Him; it is the gift of full spiritual strength to 
the baptized that they may fight successfully 
against sin. 

Confirmation, like Baptism and Orders, is a 
Sacrament imparting character, or an indelible 
spiritual mark upon the soul; therefore it can 
never be repeated without sacrilege. Its recep- 
tion is also regarded by the Church as a neces- 
sary qualification for duly partaking of the Holy 
Communion. One of the rubrics of our Prayer 
Book reads ''There shall none be admitted to the 
Holy Communion, until such time as he be con- 
firmed, or be ready and desirous to be confirmed." 
It is true that our Lord's Apostles received their 
first Communion before the Holy Ghost had 
come upon them on the day of Pentecost, and it 
is often the custom in the Roman Church to give 
candidates forConfirmation their firstCommunion 
before they have been confirmed; yet while the 
first Communion may be thus appropriately ad- 
ministered it is evidently the mind of the Church 
that only those who have been confirmed are 
qualified to receive the fulness of that grace 
which comes from participation in our Lord's 
Body and Blood. 

Chapter XXXIII. 
THE EUCHARIST. 
The Eucharist differs from all other Sacra- 



70 



ments in this, that whereas in all other Sacra- 
ments there are but two parts, as the Catechism 
says, an outward and visible sign and an inward 
and spiritual grace, there is also in this Sacra- 
ment "an inward part or thing signified" which 
is nothing less than "the Body and Blood of 
Christ, which are spiritually taken, and received 
by the faithful in the Lord's Supper. " As in 
Baptism we have water, in Confirmation the lay- 
ing on of hands, and in every other Sacrament an 
appropriate outward sign; so in the Eucharist we 
have "Bread and Wine which the Lord hath com- 
manded to be received." As also in Baptism we 
have "a death unto sin and a new birth unto 
righteousness", in Confirmation the strengthening 
gift of the Holy Ghost, and in every other Sac- 
rament a most helpful "inward and spiritual 
grace"; so in the Eucharist we have "the 
strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the 
Body and Blood of Christ." But in no other 
Sacrament do we have anything corresponding 
to this third part of the Eucharist "the inward 
part or thing signified". The expression of this 
great fact is called the doctrine of the Real Pres- 
ence. 

Some people have stumbled at this doctrine. 
It has seemed to them too awful to be true that 
our Lord should really vouchsafe His Presence 
under the forms of bread and wine.But the Church 
has always taught the Real Presence as a part of 
the Catholic Faith. It has accepted our Lord's 
words at the Institution of the Eucharist, " This 
is my Body" and "This is my Blood" as literally 
true, and has not tried to explain them believing 



71 



that He is easily able to give Himself to His peo- 
ple as He will. 

The most conspicuous of the false beliefs con- 
cerning the Eucharistic Presence are these: 

1. That there is no real Presence at all, but 
that the bread and wine symbolize our Lord's 
Body and Blood, and that by devout participa- 
tion in these symbols Christians exhibit the 
mutual devotion they ought to have for each 
other and to Christ. 

2. That there is a real Presence of the Body of 
Christ in the Supper, and that the believer par- 
takes of it, but only in this way that simultane- 
ously with the bodily participation of the mater- 
ial elements which remain unchanged and merely 
signify the Body and Blood, the faithful com- 
municant is made spiritually to partake of that 
Body and that Blood. 

The true belief of the Church is that the Pres- 
ence of our Lord in this Sacrament is both real 
and objective, real because He said "This is my 
Body," and objective, or external to our souls, 
because He is present not by virtue of our faith- 
fulness but by virtue of His own Institution and 
therefore independently of anything on our part 
except the due celebration of the Sacrament ac- 
cording to the Church's ordinance. 

That the Church has always taught the reality 
of our Lord's Presence in the Eucharist might 
be shown by quotations from the holiest Saints 
and from the Liturgies used since the earliest 
days. It will be sufficient here to quote two of 
the greatest and best known of the Fathers, St. 
Augustine and St. Chrysostom. St. Augustine 



72 



says, "Christ was carried in His own hands, 
when commending His own Body He said, This 
is my Body. For that Body He carried in His 
own hands. " (On Ps. xxxiv., Ser. I. 10, Oxf. 
Lib.) And St. Chrysostom says: "For indeed His 
Body is set before us now; not His garment 
only, but even His Body; not for us to touch It 
only, but also to eat, and be filled. " (Horn. St. 
Matt. L. 3.) 

That our own Church teaches both the reality 
of the Presence, and that it is objective, or inde- 
pendent of the communicants who receive appears 
from the 28th Article of Religion, which says 
that "The Body of Christ is given, taken and eaten, 
in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spirit- 
ual manner." It then adds "And the mean 
whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten 
(it does not here say given) in the Supper is 
faith." It is plain therefore that whereas the 
Body of Christ is given to each communicant, it 
must be present after an heavenly and spiritual 
manner externally to such communicant, but no 
one can receive and eat It except by faith. 

It is sometimes said that to believe in the Real 
Presence is to believe in the performance of a 
miracle every time the Eucharist is consecrated. 
The Church does not teach that a miracle is per- 
formed however, but that the Eucharistic 
change is a great mystery, A miracle is some- 
thing supernatural which is manifest to our 
senses, while a mystery, though equally super- 
natural, does not appeal to the senses at all, but 
only to faith. So far as our senses are concerned 
the Eucharistic gifts remain the same after Con- 



73 



secraticii as they were before, but faith, accept- 
ing our Lord's words "This is my Body," and 
"This is my Blood," acknowledges that what was 
before consecration only bread and wine is after 
consecration His Body and Blood. 

Again it is said that our Lord's Body is in 
heaven, at the Right Hand of the Father, and 
therefore It cannot also be truly present upon 
earth. Now it is quite true that after the natural 
manner of bodies, that is sensibly and locally, It 
is present only in heaven, but it is not less true 
that It is capable of being present after an 
heavenly and spiritual manner, supernaturally 
yet most really, at the same time upon all the 
Altars in Christendom. 

It may be asked whether this doctrine of the 
Real Objective Presence is not the same as that 
doctrine of Transubstantiation which the 28th Ar- 
ticle condemns. To answer this one must first 
understand fully the meaning of the term used. 
Transubstantiation is a conversion of substance. 
But what is substance? The word is used in two 
senses. In ordinary language it is the material 
of which anything is composed, as flesh, bones, 
etc., are the substance of a man's body. In phil- 
osophical language it is the reality of existence 
which underlies all the qualities of things. The 
Article denies such change of the substance of 
the bread and wine in the Eucharist as is "repug- 
nant to the plain words of Scripture, overthrow- 
eth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given 
occasion 10 many superstitions." It is plain that 
it means such change of substance as would de- 
stroy the normal properties of bread, so that it 



74 



should become natural flesh though undiscover- 
ableas such by our senses. That a change is r fleet 
ed in the Sacramental gifts by the Consecration of 
them, the Church has always taught, and as we 
have seen the Catechism plainly declares that 
the inward part, or thing signified in the Eucharist 
is the Body and Blood of Christ. In reality of 
existence what was before Consecration bread 
and wine is after Consecration the Body and 
Blood of our Lord, and in this sense the whole 
Church has always taught a conversion of sub- 
stance. There is then no change made either in 
the material nature or in the natural properties 
of the elements ; and indeed no doctrine involv- 
ing that sort of Transubstantiation is taught 
authoritatively in any part of the Church to-day, 
however prevalent it may have been among the 
unlearned in the Middle Ages. The true doo- 
trine could hardly be better expressed than in 
the words of St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, A.D. 
350. He says : 

" He once turned water into wine, in Cana of 
Galilee, at His own will, and is it incredible that 
He should have turned wine into his His Blood ? 

These things having learnt, and being 

fully persuaded that what seems bread is not 
bread, though bread by taste, but the Body of 
Christ ; and that what seems wine is not wine 
though the taste will have it so, but the Blood 
of Christ ; etc." (Catec. Lect. xxii. Oxf. Lib.) 

While our Lord's holy Body was hanging upon 
the Cross, after His death, one of the soldiers 
with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith 
came there out Blood and Water. Thus His 



75 



Blood was separated from His Body. So soon 
as He die d also His Sou , descending into hell 
was separated from His Body. After His Resur- 
rection however no such separations are any 
longer possible. Wherever His Flesh is there 
also must be His Blood, wherever His Body 
there also His Soul, wherever His Soul and Body 
there also His Divinity; for our Lord cannot be 
divided. When we believe in the Real Presence 
of His Body and His Blood, we believe also that 
with them His Divinity is likewise present. He 
who receives with faith and penitence the small- 
est portion of either species of the blessed Sacra- 
ment, receives our Lord Christ entire, in all the 
fulness of His Body, His Blood, His Soul and 
His Divinity. And we ought to give the same 
Divine Adoration to our Lord present under the 
smallest portion of either species of the blessed 
Sacrament as we would give to Him visibly 
manifesting Himself to us. 

People who have not accepted the doctrine of 
the Real Presence sometimes say that there is no 
more reason to take our Lord's words "This is 
my Body" literally than there is to take literally 
the words "I am the Door", and "I am the true 
Vine". A moment's thought however will show 
one that the expressions are not parallel. If He 
had touched the door of a room and said "This 
door is myself", or pointing to a vine had de- 
clared "This vine is my human nature" the anal- 
ogy to the words "This is my Body" would have 
been clear; but these sentences are quite different 
from "I am the Door", and "I am the Vine". 
Besides in these last there is an evident metaphor; 



76 



for as a door admits to a house, so our Lord ad- 
mits to the Church; and as the vine sustains its 
branches, so our Lord sustains His members. 
There is no metaphor in the words "This is my 
Body," only the simple statement that the Holy 
Thing He held in His hand, which to the eyes 
was bread, was His Body. 

It is further urged that the word "is" in this 
sentence might be accurately rendered "repre- 
sents" and that our Lord did not mean This is my 
Body, literally, but only This represents my Body. 
This is pure assumption however: is is the natural 
translation of the word in the original, and the 
Church universal has thus accepted the passage 
form the earliest times. If our Lord had wanted 
people to understand the words of Institution to 
mean only This represents my Body it is almost 
inconceivable that He Who could forsee all 
thing to come should have used language which 
not only should involve the whole Christian 
world for centuries unwittingly in idolatry, but 
which even at that very time caused many of 
His disciples to leave Him, for they said "This is 
a hard saying; who can hear it." Yet He did 
not retain them by altering His language which 
they had understood literally. When the Jews 
said "How can this man give us His flesh to 
eat?' He only replied "Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the 
Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have 
no life in you. " (St. John VI, 5 2-53.) As we further 



77 



consider this subject of the Eucharist we shall 
see why no theory which takes the words of 
Institution otherwise than literally in consistent 
with the evident purposes for which this Sacra- 
ment was ordained. 



Chapter XXXIV. 
THE EUCHARIST AS A SACRAMENT. 

We have seen that Baptism is the Sacra- 
ment of Regeneration imparting supernatural 
life to the soul. We have further seen that 
Confirmation is the Sacrament of Strength 
furnishing the soul with spiritual armour that it 
may fight the good fight of faith. The Euchar- 
ist is the Sacrament of spiritual nourishment, 
supplying the soul with heavenly food and drink. 
St. Paul says, "The cup of blessing which 
we bless, is it not the Communion of the 
Blood of Christ? The bread which we break, 
is it not the Communion of the Body of 
Christ?" (i Cor. X, 16 ) Therefore the Euchar- 
ist considered as our spiritual food is called the 
Holy Communion. 

The Catechism tells us that the benefits 
whereof we are partakers by receiving Holy 
Communion are "the strengthening and refresh- 



78 



ing of our souls by the Body and Blood of 
Christ as our bodies are by the Bread and Wine." 
It is evident that if the Eucharist be our spiritual 
food we must believe in the Real Presence. 
Bread and wine nourish the body, but they have 
no power to sustain the soul. The Body and 
Blood of our Lord are the only food and drink 
capable of sustaining the supernatural life im- 
parted to us at Baptism. So He says "He that 
eateth Me, even he shall live by Me." (St. John 
VI, 57-) 

As there is nothing in the world more solemn 
than this partaking of the Flesh and Blood of 
our Lord, so the Church has always taught that 
Christians should prepare for Holy Communion 
with the greatest care. 

Self-examination should be made by each 
Communicant that he may discover all his sins, 
and then by frank Confession with full purpose 
of Amendment put them all away, and come 
guiltless to the Lord's Table. 

Our own Church does not teach that one 
must go to Confession before every occasion of 
communicating unless he cannot quiet his own 
conscience without so doing. But it ought to be 
carefully remembered that we may be too easily 
satisfied in this matter, that every mortal sin is 
a very terrible fall, and that we are in far greater 
danger from neglecting this merciful office of the 
Priest than from unnecessary use of it 

We are required also to be in charity with all 
men. This means that if we have wronged any- 
one we should humbly ask pardon of him, at the 
same time making all the reparation in our 



79 



power. If one has wronged us, we must be 
sure that we heartily forgive him. 

It is a good custom to have always some 
special intention, or prayerful thought for others 
or for ourselves, when we go to Holy Commun- 
ion, for as there is no time in w 7 hich we come so 
near to God as when we worthily receive, so 
there is no time more appropriate for the 
utterance of those petitions with which we are 
most deeply concerned. 

It is a very ancient rule of the whole Church 
that people should receive Holy Communion 
always before breakfast. St. Augustine (Bishop 
Hippo, A. D. 395 — 430) says "It is perfectly clear 
that w r hen the Disciples first received the Body 
and Blood of the Lord, they did not receive it 
fasting. But are we for that reason to cast 
reproach on the Universal Church, because it is 
always received by persons fasting? For there- 
fore did it please the Holy Ghost, that in honour 
of so great a Sacrament, the Body of the Lord 
should enter the mouth of a Christian before 
other food; for on that account is this custom 
observed throughout the whole world/' (Ep.LIV. 
Cap. 6. Ed.Gaume torn. II. 189.) The rule of Fast- 
ing before communicating was made universal by 
the Council in Trullo A. D. 691. Scudamore (an 
English authority) says that the ancient rule 
became a law for both clergy and laity in the 
Anglican Church so early as A. D. 960, in these 
words "We charge that no man take the Housel 
after he hath broke his fast, except it be on 
account of extreme sickness." While we have 
no Canon of the American Church requiring 



80 



Fasting Communion no one who respects 
Catholic tradition and the law of the Mother 
Church of England ought to be willing to receive 
the Blessed Sacrament after having taken any 
food since the midnight before. Bishop Jeremy 
Taylor says, " It is a Catholic custom that they 
who receive the Holy Communion should receive 
it fasting. He that despises this custom gives 
nothing but the testimony of an evil mind." 
Ductor Dubitantium Book III, cap. IV, XV. 

In the earliest times many Christians appear 
to have received every day, but it was universally 
expected that everyone should receive every 
Lord's Day, unless hindered by very real 
necessity. There is an appropriateness in the 
thought that as our Lord gave us this Holy 
Sacrament to be our special bond of union with 
Himself, we should whenever possible partake 
of it on that day He has made peculiarly His 
own by His Resurrection from the dead. The 
universal Church requires all the faithful to re- 
ceive at least once a year, during the Easter sea 
son, and our Anglican Mother enjoins three 
Communions a year on all the faithful as the 
minimum of duty. 

After one has made his devotional preparation 
for receiving, and has gone fasting co the Church, 
he should strive to follow the Service with 
reverent attention. After the Consecration he 
should be unwilling to sit, so long as the Blessed 
Sacrament remains upon the Altar, b\:t 
should kneel, or if wearied from long kneeling 
stand. Sitting is an unsuitable posture for a 
worshipper while our Lord vouchsatcs His 



81 

Presence upon the Altar. When it is time to go 
forward to the Sanctuary to receive, one should 
first, after leaving his place and coming before 
the Altar reverently genuflect, (touching one 
knee to the floor,) and then going to the vacant 
place farthest to his right at. the rail kneel up- 
right there, with his ungloved hands crossed, the 
right above the left, and with open palm, that 
the Priest may the more conveniently place in 
his hand the Lord's Body. When It is given him 
he should carefully raise It to his lips and con- 
sume It, taking care that no crumbs fall to the 
floor. When the Chalice of our Lord's Blood is 
brought to him, he should not try to take it out 
of the clergyman's hands, but taking hold of its 
base reverently guide it to his lips that he may 
the more conveniently partake of a few drops of 
the precious Blood. Before taking one's place 
again in the Church a reverent genuflection 
should be made before the Altar. Then remain- 
ing upon on^'s knees after the Blessing until the 
Priest has finished the Ablutions, (cleansing the 
sacred vessels,) one should say his Thanksgiving 
devotions either before leaving the Church or so 
soon after as may be. 



Chapter XXXV. 

THE EUCHARISTIC SACRIFICE. 

All victims offered to God before the Christian 
era were acceptable to Him only so far as they 
were types of the perfect Sacrifice our Lord was 
to offer upon the Cross. When His Sacrifice 



82 



had been offered, as on the first Good Friday, 
all other sacrifices must cease to be acceptable 
being superseded. It is evident however that 
the worship of God must continue in the world; 
and because our Lord's Sacrifice upon the Cross 
was to take away the sins of the world, we may 
expect its intercessory pleading to continue so 
long as there remain any sins to be taken away. 
We are taught this in the Epistle to the He- 
brews; "This man (our Lord) because He con- 
tinueth ever hath an unchangeable priesthood. 
Therefore He is able also to save them to the 
uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing 
He ever liveth to make intercession for them. 
(Heb. VII, 24-25.) Again, in the next chapter, 
"We have such a High Priest, Who is set on the 
right hand of the throne of the majesty in the 
heavens For every High Priest is or- 
dained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it 
is of necessity that this Man have somewhat also 
to offer." 

Thus our Lord is represented as remaining a 
Priest forever, and continually presenting His 
one perfect Sacrifice before the Father in inter- 
cession for human sins. This He does Himself 
in heaven. But before He left the earth He 
commanded His Priests to celebrate that 
mysterious Service of the Eucharist, which He 
instituted the night before His death as ^Memorial 
of Him. St. Paul tells us the true nature of this 
Memorial; "As often as yet ye eat this bread, 
and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death 
till lie come."(I Cor. XI, 26.) Therefore our 
Prayer Book tells us that in celebrating the 



83 



Eucharist we continue "a perpetual memory of 
that His precious death and sacrifice, until His 
coming again." He in heaven unceasingly 
intercedes for us, we on earth continually make 
the Memorial He hath commanded us to make. 

Thus from the earliest days of Christianity 
the Church has believed the Eucharist to be a 
great memorial Sacrifice, unbloody, yet real, the 
perpetuation of the offering of Calvary. In it 
the bloody Sacrifice of the Cross is continually 
"represented, remembered till the end of the 
world, and its virtue applied to the remission of 
sins as they are committed" (Bp. Forbes.) It is 
evident that belief in the Eucharist as a 
memorial Sacrifice involves the truth of the 
Real Objective Presence. The only offering in- 
trinsically acceptable as a Sacrifice to the 
Father is that of the Body and Blood of our 
Lord. Therefore those holy Gifts which the 
Priest lifts up in offering to the Father must be 
truly the Body and Blood of Christ under the 
forms of bread and wine. In the Eucharist he 
offers them having in remembrance our Lord's 
"blessed Passion and precious Death, His mighty 
Resurrection and glorious Ascension;" render- 
ing most hearty thanks for the innumerable 
benefits procured unto us oy the same; and 
beseeching the Father to grant that by the 
merits and death of His Son Jesus Christ, and 
through faith in His Blood, we, and all His 
whole Church, (that is the faithful dead as well 
as those on earth) may obtain remission of our 
sins, and all other benefits of His Passion. Be- 
cause our Lord said "This do in remembrance 



84 



of me," the whole Church has ever regarded the 
Eucharistic Sacrifice as the great act of Chris- 
tian Worship. 

Chapter XXXVI. 
THE CHRISTIAN SANCTUARY. 

The Churches of Christians were from the 
earliest times arranged with reference to the 
due celebration of the Eucharist. The central 
feature of every Catholic Church is the Altar at 
which the Priest stands to offer the great un- 
bloody Sacrifice. The earliest Christian Altars 
were commonly made of stone though sometimes 
of wood. The top of the Altar was covered with 
fine linen, and vessels of gold or silver were used 
to contain the bread and wine to be consecrated. 
Forms of prayer and praise for the celebration 
of the Eucharist (or Mass as it was very early 
named) were arranged in times soon after the 
Apostles if not by the Apostles themselves; these 
are the Liturgies, or Service Books of the 
Church. Carefully following the forms pre- 
scribed by the Liturgy the Priest was wont to 
stand day by day before the Altar, and offer 
there the great Sacrifice, and so the Catholic 
Church throughout the world worshipped God. 
Gradually there grew up forms and ceremonies 
appropriate to so great a Service until the ritual 
of the Church had as definite a place in its wor- 
ship as the forms of prayer which were used. 

Our own American Church does not expressly 
provide for any adornment of the Altar except 



85 



that it is to be covered at the time of the Euchar- 
ist with a fair white linen cloth. The English 
Prayer Book however orders that the Ornaments 
of the Church and of the Ministers thereof which 
were lawfully used in the second year of King 
Edward VI. shall be retained and be in use. Of 
these the more conspicuous are the Cross and 
Candlesticks. The Cross over the Altar marks it 
as the Throne of our Lord, the special place of 
His meeting with His people upon earth. The 
Candles, or other Lights, of which the number 
may vary, two only being required, signify the 
special Presence of our Lord Christ, the Light 
cf the world, in His Sanctuary. 

There are also the Chalice (or cup) and Paten 
(or plate) for the sacred elements, the Missal (or 
book of the Liturgy) with the Desk on which 
it rests, the Cruets (or bottles for wine and 
water), the Ciborium (or box for bread), and the 
Bowl and Towel for washing the fingers of the 
Priest. These last are ordinarily placed upon a 
little side table in the Sanctuary, called the Cre- 
dence. Vases of flowers also are often placed 
above the Altar. 

It is not probable that all of the present Eu- 
charistic Vestments were used in the Church in 
Apostolic daySj yet that a special dress for the 
Clergy was thought suitable would appear from 
what St. John says in the Apocalypse of the four 
and twenty Elders. They were " clothed in 
white raiment, and they had on their heads 
crowns of gold." Rev. IV, 4. There is an ap- 
propriateness in having a distinctive dress for 
those who are engaged in sacred ministrations. 



86 



God Himself appointed special Vestments for 
the Priests under the Law of Moses, and from very 
early times the Christian Church has made use of 
distinctive Vestments for the Clergy officiating 
in the Sanctuary. 

The Priest clothed in his Cassock or long 
black coat reaching to the ground, preparing for 
Mass, after his prayers first washes his hands, 
then puts upon his head the Amice (or hood) 
figuring the helmet of salvation. Next he puts 
on the long linen robe called the Alb (white), thus 
with Amice and Alb together being entirely 
robed in white to remind every one of the purity 
of heart with which the Service of God should 
be celebrated. After that he girds himself with 
the girdle; then fastens upon his left arm a 
band called the Maniple (or napkin), an orna- 
mental survival of a linen napkin or handker- 
chief used in early times. Next he puts about 
his neck, allowing the ends after crossing them 
upon his breast to fall towards the ground, the 
long band of silk called the Stole (or robe) the 
special badge of the Priestly office. Over all 
the Chasuble, or heavy outer garment, generally 
of rich stuff and embroidered, is worn. This is a 
symbol of the yoke of our Lord Christ which 
the Priest pre-eminently must bear. Thus ar- 
rayed in mystic and glorious garments the Priest 
ascends the steps of the Altar and celebrates the 
great act of Christian Worship. 

In the Choir Offices, as they are called, of Ma- 
tins and Vespers, the Officiant usually wears over 
his cassock only the linen Surplice or Cotta, 
though on great occasions a richly embroidered 
cloak called the Cope is used. 



87 



The most complete and ornate of all the pub- 
lic Services of the Church is the Solemn High 
Celebration of the Eucharist (called Pontifical 
when a Bishop is the Celebrant) which is sung 
to music throughout, and at which the officiating 
Priest is assisted by a Deacon and Subdeacon. 
These are merely names given from the offices 
performed, the Deacon and Subdeacon very often 
being Priests — at the Consecration of a Bishop 
the rubric requires them to be Bishops. They 
are dressed in Alb and Amice as the Celebrant, 
but instead of the Chasuble they wear Tunics 
(or Dalmatics) of rich embroidered stuff. 

As it is often impossible, even on Sundays, to 
have the Solemn High Service, the plainer Missa 
Cantata or Eucharist with music is celebrated as 
the chief Service on Sunday morning. For this 
only one Priest is required, he being served by 
the Acolytes (assistants) who are laymen. The 
plainest Eucharist of all is the simple read 
Service, with one Priest and lay server. This 
plain Service, often called Low Mass, is used 
more in Western Christendom than among 
the Orientals, and is intended to facilitate 
the receiving of Holy Communion, the Service 
being short, and generally at early hours when 
people can conveniently come before breakfast. 

The Eucharist is really the same in these 
forms of celebration, only the ceremonies and 
the music make differences of detail in each 
case. 

One of the most striking ceremonies of the 
Church is the use of Incense. Incense is a 
figure of prayer, but the Church signifies by it 



88 



more especially the intercession of our Lord 
Christ on our behalf. It is certain that no 
prayers or offerings of ours could, except for His 
merits, be acceptable to God. The Incense 
ascending in a fragrant cloud at the time of 
Divine Worship, is a type of the meritorious 
intercession of our Lord, enveloping all our im- 
perfect prayers and offerings and making them 
efficacious. God commanded the Jews always to 
burn Incense when offering their sacrifices, and 
so from very early Christian times it has been re- 
garded as a fitting accompaniment of the great 
Sacrifice of the Altar. 

In the Old Testament we find that God com- 
manded the use of colours in the Hebrew sanctu- 
ary. "And thou shalt make a hanging for the 
door of the tent of blue, and purple, and scarlet, 
and fine twined linen, wrought with needle- 
work " (Ex. XXVI., 36); again "And they shall 
make the ephod of gold, of blue, and ot purple 
of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning 
work" (Ex. XXVIII., 6). While the blue and 
purple and scarlet may not have been the same 
colours as we now know under those names, it is 
evident that the use of bright colours as well as 
of gold, fine linen, and embroidery is suitable in 
the service of God. From early times the Chris- 
tian Church has used different colours, for the 
hangings of the Sanctuary and for the Vestments 
of the clergy, although not always the same as 
are now used. Various parts of the Church 
throughout the world have different rules as to 
the use of ecclesiastical colours. The ordinary 
Western rule which most of our Churches fol- 



89 



low has white (or gold ) for feasts of our Lord and 
the Blessed Virgin as well as other special festi- 
vals, because white or gold fittingly expresses 
glory and joy; red, the princely colour and that of 
blood, for most of the Saints in the calendar, the 
Church's princes and martyrs; and because also 
the colour of flame it is used at Whitsuntide when 
the Holy Ghost came down in the likeness of 
fiery tongues; violet, the colour of penitence, dur- 
ing Advent and Lent; green, the colour of nature, 
of the grass and the trees, for the ordinary days 
that are neither feasts nor fasts; and black for 
Good Friday and for burials. 

In some Churches a Bell is sounded at the 
more solemn parts of the Service, as at the 
Consecration and Elevation (or lifting up in 
offering before God) of the Holy Gifts of the 
Altar. In the Old Testament we find that God 
commanded something similar to this. On the 
hem of the robe which Aaron wore when he went 
into the holy place, Moses made bells of gold. 
Of this robe it is said "And it shall be upon 
Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard 
when he goeth in unto the holy place before the 
Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not." 
(Ex. XXVI II., 35.) In like manner the Sanctuary 
Bell, where it is used, helps to accent the more 
solemn moments of the Service and to call the at- 
tention of the people to them. 

The elements required for the due administra- 
tion of the Eucharist are bread and wine. In the 
matter of the wine it is important to note that 
the Church allows nothing to be used but the 
fermented juice of the grape. Any other liquor, 



90 



as unfermented grape juice, would invalidate the 
Sacrament We know that the Jews in our 
Lord's time always mixed water with the wine 
they used in celebrating the Passover. Because 
our Lord used wine thus diluted at the first 
Eucharist the Church universal has reverently 
followed this custom, a little clean water being 
mingled with the wine of the Chalice when the 
elements are first offered upon the Altar. And 
the Mixed Chalice reminds us of the Blood and 
water which flowed from our Lord's side upon 
the Cross, when after His death the soldier 
pierced Him. It has always been deemed suit- 
able that the bread used in the Eucharist should 
be specially prepared for its holy purpose. Partly 
that it may be the more easily consumed and 
partly that it may not crumble, the wafer, gen- 
erally prepared in religious houses, has been 
commonly used for many centuries in Western 
Christendom. The Oriental Churches use a 
larger cake, but specially prepared for its pur- 
pose and of the best flour. The Western Churches 
use unleavened bread, and the Orientals leavened, 
the latter following early custom, and the former 
desiring more exactly to celebrate as our Lord 
did at the first Eucharist. 

The Priest standing at the Altar to celebrate 
the Eucharist takes from time to time different 
positions. He holds two distinct offices as one 
may say, being both the spokesman and repre- 
sentative of the people before God, and the am- 
bassador and messenger of God to the people. 
When he is praying and offering up the Holy 
Sacrifice on behalf of the people, he stands be- 



91 



fore the Altar, facing it as the congregation also 
do; but when he preaches, or gives Absolution 
and the Blessing, he turns about towards the 
congregation, for then he is coming as it were 
from God to them bringing the heavenly mes- 
sage of the Gospel, or bestowing the Divine 
gifts of pardon and peace entrusted to him to 
minister on God's behalf. 

From the second century it has been custo- 
mary in the Christian Church to set aside a por- 
tion of the Blessed Sacrament, on occasion, that 
it may be conveyed to the sick, or to those una- 
ble for any good reason to come to the Church 
to receive. In many places it is most desirable 
that the Holy Food should be constantly reserv- 
ed that it may always be ready for use in sudden 
emergencies. Our own Church provides for the 
celebration of the Eucharist in the houses of the 
sick, in order that they may have the benefit of 
direct participation in the offering of the Holy 
Sacrifice, as well as in the receiving of it. Yet 
there arise many cases in which it is most unde 
sirable, sometimes impossible, to celebrate in 
places where there are sick people, and for such 
special cases the use of the Reserved Sacrament 
is intended. Some persons have thought that 
Article XXVIII. forbids Reservation, but what 
the Article says is: " The Sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance re- 
served." This is simply to say that Reservation 
is not positively enjoined on the Church. It is 
much the same as that part of Article XXV 
which declares that Confirmation has no visible 
sign ordained of God. The Church no more for- 



92 



bids Reservation than it does the laying on of 
the hands of the Bishop in Confirmation. It 
only says that neither of these is directly by 
Divine ordinance. The second rubric at the 
end of the Altar office in the Prayer Book is not 
directed against Reservation for the sick and for 
sudden emergency, its history showing that it 
was intended only to forbid the sacrilegious tak- 
ing away of what remained of the Sacred Species 
for use at the clergyman's home table. There is 
no breach of the rubric ir the setting aside of a 
small portion of the Holy Food at the open 
Communion, for use in special necessity. When 
the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in any Church* 
it is customary to notify people of the fact 
by burning a light, generally in a lamp pro- 
vided for that purpose, before the Sanctuary. 
The chamber above the Altar in which the Re- 
served Sacrament is ordinarily kept is called in 
Western Christendom the Tabernacle. 



Chapter XXXVII. 
PENANCE. 

Penance is one of the five " commonly called 
Sacraments " which our Article XXV declares 
not to have 11 like nature with Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper for that they have not any vis- 
ible sign or ceremony ordained of God." In this 
Sacrament the outward visible sign or form is the 
confession of sins by the penitent, and the pro- 
nouncing of Absolution by the Priest. Its inward 
and spiritual grace is the remission of sins com- 
mitted after Baptism. Baptism gives fullest Ab- 



93 



solution to those who rightly receive it from 
all sin, both original and actual, committed before 
it, but as it cannot be repeated, and as many 
persons after Baptism sometimes fall into mortal 
sin, it has pleased God to institute this Sacra- 
ment for the continual forgiveness, upon peni- 
tence, of post-baptismal sin. 

In Old Testament times men were wont to 
confess their sins to the Ministers of God, the 
Priests and Prophets of the ancient dispensation, 
as Achan to Joshua (Josh. VII., 19,) David to 
Nathan (II Sam. XII, 13,) and the whole Jewish 
nation to Ezra (Ezra X, 11-13.) 

In the New Testament we read that when St. 
John Baptist came preaching repentance, those 
who hearkened to him were "baptized of him in 
Jordan, confessing their sins"(St.Matt.III,6.) And 
when St. Paul had preached at Ephesus and con- 
verted m^ny of the people, it is said that those 
"that believed came and confessed and shewed 
their deeds" (Act XIX, 1 8.) It w T ould appear there- 
fore that it is a natural part of Divine religion 
for men to show their repentance by confessing 
their sins. The Bible further teaches us that by 
confession we may expect to obtain pardon for 
our sins. St. John says "If we confess our sins, 
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 St. 
John I, 9.) 

In the early Church penitents were wont to 
confess their sins publicly in the face of the con- 
gregation of the faithful, or more commonly to 
the Bishop and the local body of Priests. A 
little later in the Eastern Churches a special 



94 



Priest called P enitentiarins was appointed to hear 
Confessions, that the scandal arising from pub- 
lic confession might be avoided. In the sixth 
century the practice of private Confession to 
Priests became general throughout the Church. 
Such confession is required before receiving 
Holy Communion, and at least once a year, by 
the Oriental and Roman Churches. The Angli- 
can Churches only require it where persons can- 
not quiet their own consciences. 

It is often said, Why confess to a Priest, why 
not to God only and directly ? The objection to 
what is called confessing to God only is that in 
most cases it is. altogether inadequate as confes- 
sion, in fact no real confession at all. The es- 
sence of confession is the making our sins 
known — not keeping them to ourselves, but un- 
covering them. God Who perfectly reads our 
hearts knows all we have done without being 
told by us, and thus we can really keep our sins 
to ourselves quite as much after confessing them 
to Him as before. This is not to say that there 
is no spiritual profit in opening out our sins one 
by one before God in times of prayer. Such 
confession is no doubt a most edifying exercise 
in humility and dependence and when it is 
accompanied by true contrition certainly ob- 
tains the Divine forgiveness; but if it be not so 
accompanied by genuine contrition, it needs to 
be supplemented by a more definite uncovering of 
one's sins. To confess in the fullest sense of 
the word we must make our sins known to some 
human being, who may be presumed not to know 
them already. Therefore while confession to God 
only may move the soul to genuine contrition, it 



95 



seems less calculated to do so than confession to 
God through the medium of man. 

It does not follow that because confession to 
man as well as to God is likely to be more genu- 
ine than that made to God alone, the person re- 
ceiving the confession should of necessity be a 
Priest. Parents often hear the confessions of 
their children, and for most men it would be 
profitable to confess their sins regularly to any 
wise-hearted and God-fearing friend. A Catho- 
lic would certainly wish, in the hour of death, to 
confess his sins to some faithful lay friend, if no 
Priest could be had. Yet it is evident for sever- 
al reasons that the Priest is the most suitable 
person for man to confess to. First because he 
is the Divinely ordained pastor (or shepherd) of 
souls, and thus by his office as well as by his ex- 
perience better qualified than any other to help 
penitents to amend their lives; secondly, because 
the Priest's lips are closed by the most solemn obli- 
gation of his office that they may never reveal 
anything heard in Confession without the ex- 
press consent of the penitent; thirdly, because 
to the Priests of the Church alone God has com- 
mitted the power of Absolution, the Divine rem- 
dy for sin. 

One purposing to make Sacramental Confes- 
sion for the first time should take some book of 
questions explanatory of the different sorts of 
sins. Two methods of self-examination are 
commonly used, one by the Ten Command- 
ments, the other by the Seven Capital Sins. 
The penitent may use whichever he finds more 
helpful. Then after prayer for God's help and 



96 



guidance, he should carefully scrutinize all his 
life past, going back so far as he can remember, 
or until his Baptism if that was not in infancy, 
noting (with paper and pencil is a very good 
plan) everything of which conscience accuses 
him. One distinguishes naturally between sins 
of thought, of word, and of deed; also between 
sinful habits, perhaps long indulged, and in- 
dividual occasions of sin; and also between wil- 
ful sins and those committed thoughtlessly or 
carelessly. After as thorough a self-examination 
as one can make, he should go to Church at the 
time appointed for hearing Confessions, and 
when his turn has come enter the Confessional, 
make use of the customary formula (found in 
devotional books), then tell frankly (using his 
paper if he desires) all the sins which his self- 
examination has disclosed to him. The Priest 
then gives counsel, assigns him a penance 
(generally a devotional exercise for proving his 
repentance,) and if there be no reason for with- 
holding it, Absolution. It is advisable to go to 
Confession before Christmas and Easter at the 
least, and as many times more as one's conscience 
may suggest, or one's spiritual pastor on being 
consulted advise, for even if one should not have 
fallen into any grievous sin he can almost always 
accuse himself of carelessness, of worldliness, 
and lack of devotion to God, so that 'the clean- 
sing of his soul from imperfections from time 
to time must help him to maintain a pure and 
holy life. 

Chapter XXXVIII. 
ABSOLUTION. 
Absolution is the supernatural powef which 



97 



releases souls from the guilt of sin, possessed of 
right by God alone, but entrusted by Him to 
His Priests to administer in His name to peni- 
tents. Our Loid, Who of course had th s power 
as God, showed that it had also been given to Him 
as man, by h; aling the paralytic in Capernaum. 
He said to him "Thy sins be forgiven thee," and 
when the Scribes objected " Who can forgive sins 
but Go 1 only?" He expressly declared that the 
Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins, 
and proved His words by healing the paralytic 
before their eyes, so that all the people immedi- 
ately learned the lesson intended to be taught 
them and glorified God " Who had given such 
power unto men". We may not doubt that God 
meant other sons of men to exercise this power, 
for before our Lord left the earth He breathed 
on His Apostles and said to them, "Receive ye 
the Holy Ghost: Whosesoever sins ye remit, they 
are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye 
retain, they are retained" (St. John XX, 23.) The 
gift of Absolution thus committed to the 
Apostles has been handed down in the Church, 
so that Priests are at their Ordination empowered 
to give Absolution to penitents. The Anglican, 
and our own American Church both have these 
words in the Ordinal, to be said by the Bishop 
when conferring the Priesthood, " Receive the 
Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest 
in the Church of God, now committed unto thee 
by the Imposition of our hands. Whose sins 
thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose 
sins thou dost retain, they are retained." 

It is urged sometimes that the power of 



98 



Absolution given by our Lord to His Apostles 
was not intended to continue in the Church, and 
that Priests have no real authority to forgive 
sins. This is not reasonable, however, for if men 
in the days of the Apostles needed Absolution, 
they surely need it quite as much in these days; 
and it is difficult to believe that our Lord should 
have given the men of that generation so wonder- 
ful and priceless a gift, and then have taken it 
away that no subsequent generation should en- 
joy its blessings. If He meant men in that first 
age of the Church to be able to receive Absolu- 
tion by confessing their sins to one of the Apos- 
tles, we may surely believe that He intended to 
provide the same privilege for all mankind so 
long as sin remains in the world. 

If one should further argue against this that 
the power of working miracles of healing has 
largely ceased in the Church, therefore why not 
Absolution also? he might well be answered that 
miracles were given as the credentials of the 
Church. The Apostles had to demonstrate by 
miraculous deeds that they had been sent by 
God. So soon as Christianity attained a recog- 
nized position in the world the need for miracles 
as proofs of its Divine origin largely ceased. 
The Church now can point to the miracles 
worked in the world's history and in man's con- 
dition by Christ's religion, and the clergy can prove 
their Divine authority by showing that they 
have received their Orders from those whom the 
Apostles themselves commissioned to ordain, in 
unbroken succession. Since the need for 
miraculous evidence of the Divine origin of 



99 



our religion has ceased, it is but natural that 
miracles should have ceased to a great extent; 
but so far from the need of Absolution having 
ceased, it is evident that sin is quite as frequent 
and quite as terrible as it ever was, and Chris- 
tian men and women just as earnestly desire 
pardon now as they did in the days of the 
Apostles. Our Lord Himself said u Lo I am 
with you alway, even unto the end of the world," 
and inasmuch as this could not have been per- 
sonal y for all the original Apostles soon died, it 
must have been official, meaning that the Apos- 
tolic powers were to continue in the Church to 
the end of the world. 

It is sometimes asked whether absolution be 
necessary to the forgiveness of our sins. If one 
be truly sorry for his sins, and resolve to amend 
his life, is he not forgiven without absolution? 
The Church shows most clearly that the abso- 
lution pronounced by a Priest is an essential 
part of the Divine plan for the pardon of sins 
committed after Baptism. In the Offices for 
Morning and Evening Prayer there is found a 
Declaration of Absolution following the General 
Confession of the sins of the congregation, and 
the same is true in the Office for Holy Commun- 
ion. Nor can there be any doubt that the Church 
regards the Priesthood as alone empowered to 
give Absolution, for these Declarations of Abso- 
lution may only be said by a Priest in every 
instance. Since our Lord Christ most solemnly 
gave the power of absolving men's sins to His 
Apostles, and since the Church with greatest 
solemnity also provides for the bestowal of the 
same power upon every one of its Priests at 



100 



his ordination, likewise arranging for his 
exercise of that power, it is incredible but that 
priestly Absolution is not only most efficacious 
but also most essential for the forgiveness of 
post baptismal sin. 

While the use of the general Confession by 
the whole congregation in Church does not take 
away from the importance of the individual con- 
fession of one's sins in private, no more does the 
general Absolution pronounced by the Priest in 
Church take away from the importance of the 
special Absolution given to individuals in Sacra- 
mental Confession. The Church does not in- 
deed include Penance among Sacraments "gen- 
erally necessary to salvation," for it is quite 
conceivable that some Christians may live with- 
out ever committing mortal sin. 

The Prayer Book requires of each individual 
that he should examine his life and conversation 
by the rule of God's Commandments. Then if 
he finds he cannot quiet his own conscience be- 
cause of the "scruple and doubtfulness" arising 
from mortal sin, he is bound to go to the Priest 
and open his grief. The question is not so much 
Is every one bound to go to Confession? as it is 
Can I after honest self-examination so quiet my 
conscience that I can dispense with that pardon- 
ing grace of absolution which our Lord Christ 
has entrusted to His Priests to administer in His 
Name ? 



Chapter XXXIX. 
THE PENALTY OF SIN. 
The Sacrament by which mortal sin commit- 



101 



ted after Baptism are remitted gets its name 
from the Latin word Poenitentia which means 
penitence, because the essential element on the 
part of the sinner for the obtaining of the Divine 
pardon is hearty sorrow for his sin with full pur- 
pose of amendment. Every wilful sin may be 
regarded as an offence against both the love of 
God and His justice.. He is not a hard Master 
ruling over His creatures as if they were slaves, 
but their gracious and most merciful Father. 
Every wilful sin is on this account an act of re- 
bellion, separating the soul from its Maker, and 
causing it to be guilty in His eys. This guilt of 
sin man could never of himself escape from, only 
the goodness of God, in the death of our Lord, 
makes it possible for the guilty soul to be par- 
doned and restored to favour. The sinner so 
long as he is in this world can obtain the benefit 
of our Lord's death by true repentance. Even 
where the contrition is imperfect the Church's 
absolution following upon frank confession 
reconciles the soul to God, and removes from it 
the guilt of sin. 

But He is just as well as merciful; He cannot 
abdicate His essential righteousness. Thus while 
He receives the penitent sinner back into favour, 
He does not relieve him of the just temporal 
punishment his sins deserve. This is the teach- 
ing of the Bible, that every wilful sin must have 
its due measure of punishment. St. Paul's says 
" Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for what- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.*' 
(Gal. VI., 7). We have a remarkable illus- 
tration of this in the case of David who 



102 



sinned in the matter of Uriah the Hitt- 
ite. After he had been guilty both of adul- 
tery and of murder the prophet Nathan came 
to him, and by the parable of the poor man's 
one ewe lamb showed the king the enormity 
of his sin. David was overcome with compunc- 
tion for what he had done, and with profound 
penitence acknowledged his guilt. At once the 
prophet replied that the Lord had put away his 
sin. We may believe that thus in a moment, be- 
cause of the king's true contrition, the guilt was 
taken from his soul, and he was restored to 
to the favour of God. It is quite evident how- 
ever that though David was thus pardoned, he 
was not meant to escape the due penalty of his 
great sin. The punishment which should over- 
take him the prophet fully foretold, the child 
should die, the sword should never depart from 
David's house, and another should sin against 
him even as he had sinned against Uriah. It 
is certain then that no man can sin with im- 
punity, thinking that by repentance he can es- 
cape the just punishment of his misdeeds; for 
while true contrition will take away the guilt and 
eternal punishment of his transgressions, the 
temporal penalty will remain to be borne 
until Divine justice shall be satisfied. 

It is customary for the Priest in the Confes- 
sional to prescribe for the penitent some spirit- 
ual exercise or mortification which shall serve to 
remind him of the penalty his sins deserve, and 
be a test of the sincerity of his contrition, It 
is not to be supposed that any Priest can know 
just how much punishment is necessary to satisfy 



103 



the law of justice, therefore the penance given 
in the Confessional is not to be supposed an ade- 
quate penalty for the sins confessed, except so 
far as ecclesiastical sentences are concerned. 
Only God can weigh the amount of transgres- 
sion in each case, and justly proportion the pun- 
ishment to be endured. 

The ecclesiastical penances of the early 
Church were imposed for notorious offences 
against the faith and morals and generally sepa- 
rated the penitent from Holy Communion, and in 
most cases from being present at the more solemn 
part of the celebration of the Eucharist for a con- 
siderable length of time, sometimes for years. 
The administration of this sort of discipline is 
far less common in our days, but it ought not to 
be forgotten that a certair just proportion of 
punishment is demanded by Divine justice for 
e T 'ery sin, and if that punishment be not endured 
in this world, it must be endured hereafter be- 
fore the soul can be admitted to the Vision of 
God. There are two principal ways in which we 
may endure the penalty our sins deserve in this 
world, the one by taking patiently all the trials 
and hardships of life, acknowledging that we de- 
serve far more of suffering than we thus under- 
go, the other by voluntarily undertaking self- 
denials and difficult exercises of devotion thereby 
exhibiting to God our acknowledgment of our 
unworthiness and our desire of enduring all the 
penalty our sins justly deserve. After this life 
is ended man can no longer undertake voluntary 
penances, but must endure those which God im- 
poses for the perfect satisfaction of Divine jus- 
tice. 



104 



While the Church has never doubted that all 
those dying in baptismal innocence go immedi- 
ately to heaven, it has from very early times be- 
lieved that there is for the faithful who have not 
perfectly retained that innocence an intermediate 
state between this world and heaven, in which 
their souls are purified and rendered wholly free 
from all the effects of sin. In the Latin Church 
this intermediate state is commonly called Pur- 
gatory, and it is believed that the souls therein 
detained are aided by the prayers of the faithful 
and especially by the holy Eucharist offered on 
their behalf. Purgatory means literally a puri- 
fying place. We believe that every soul at the 
hour of death is in some way brought to judg- 
ment (the particular judgment as distinct from 
the general judgment at the end of the world), 
and its eternal destiny for salvation or damna- 
tion decided. The wicked then pass into ,hell, 
as our Lord teaches in the story of the rich man 
and Lazarus (St. Luke XVI.) where they suffer 
torment, while the righteous (except in the 
case of a few extraordinarily holy ones, 
already entirely purged from sin) enter the inter- 
mediate state of purification, where they remain 
untii they have endured all the penalty their sins 
deserve, after which they are capable of behold- 
ing the Vision of God. In the story of the rich 
man and Lazarus the faithful were in Abraham's 
bosom, but this seems to represent the condition 
of righteous souls under the old dispensation, 
before our Lord redeemed the world. After His 
death Abraham's bosom became Paradise or the 
abode of the blessed wherein they behold the 



105 



face of God. Into Paradise, or heaven, none can 
enter except those who are wholly sanctified, 
and the intermediate state exists for the sancti- 
fying of the souls of the righteous not wholly 
freed from the penalties due their sins in this 
life. 

One of the Articles of Religion condemns 
"the Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory.'* 
This seems to mean the popular Roman teaching 
concerning Indulgences, or pardons. The origi- 
nal idea of the Indulgence was the release of a 
soul, by the ecclesiastical authority, from the 
whole or a part of the temporal penalty pre- 
scribed by the Church for certain sins in this 
world. As if a man condemned by the canon 
law to ten years penance for some grievous 
offence, should have his time shortened, for good 
reason, to five years. That was an Indulgence or 
a pardon sanctioned by the Church. In later 
times the Roman Popes claimed to have power 
to release souls in Purgatory, as well as in this 
life, from the whole or a part of the penalty their 
sins deserved. This is clearly an abuse of the 
pardoning power of the Church, for just as no 
man can possibly know how T great penalty 
Divine justice demands in each case, so no man 
can diminish that which God's justice has im- 
posed upon souls gone forth from this world. 
While therefore we believe with the whole 
Christian Church in an intermediate state of 
purification for the faithful dead after they have 
gone forth from this world, we reject that 
"Romish doctrine" concerning Purgatory which 
teaches that the Church on earth can judicially 



106 



absolve the souls of the dead from the penalties 
due their sins, or improve their condition except 
by intercessory prayer and especially the offering 
of the holy Sacrifice of the Altar. 

Chapter XL. 
ORDERS. 

The third of those five "commonly called 
Sacraments" is Orders. It is a Sacrament where- 
by the Clergy of the Church are set apart for 
their several ministerial functions and given 
grace to execute them. It is evident that for so 
great an office as stewardship of the mysteries of 
God (i Cor. IV, i), a man should be both 
Divinely authorized and Divinely endowed, both 
given authority from Him Who has authority and 
furnished with power and grace sufficient for 
its due exercise. 

According both to Apostolic and universal 
usage, only Bishops, the highest order 
of the Ministry, can convey to others the 
grace of Orders. The precise manner of ordina- 
tion, and the words used by the Bishop in or- 
daining may differ in different parts of the 
Church, ana while our own Communion ack- 
nowledges that this Sacrament has no visible 
sign or ceremony ordained immediately by our 
Lord, vet it has preserved from ancient times 
most solemn and dignified forms of ordination, 
in which our Lord's own formula is used "Receive 
the Holy Ghost," the office to be exercised is 
distinctly specified, its functions plainly declared, 



107 



and the laying on of the Bishop's hands required. 

In the ordination of a Deacon, the lowest of 
the three orders, the Bishop alone lays on his 
hands. In the ordination of a Priest, the Priests 
who are present in the Sanctuary join with the 
Bishop in laying on hands; not however because 
they have any power to convey the grace of 
Orders, for the Bishop alone has this and shows 
that he alone has it by pronouncing the formula 
of ordination by himself, but that they may 
signify their full consent in the elevation of their 
brother minister to their o wn rank in the Church. 
In the consecration of a Bishop the ancient 
canons require at least three Bishops to lay on 
their hands, not that one alone could not 
consecrate validly, but that so great a function 
should have dignified and suitable witnesses. 

By the greatest care in all consecrations the 
Church universal has guarded the Episcopate 
from the earliest times, so that in none of the 
more prominent Communions of Christendom 
can there be any doubt that the line of Bishops 
has come down unimpaired from some one of 
our Lord's Apostles. This is called the Apos- 
tolic Succession. It means that the line of Bis- 
hops in each national Church may be traced back 
through past years, in canonical consecrations, 
to the times of the Apostles whom our Lord 
Himself consecrated. Our American Church 
derives its succession through English and 
Scottish lines from St. Peter, St. Paul, and St: 
John. 

From the very first age of the Church it has 
insisted upon the necessity of Episcopal 



108 



ordination for every Clergyman, and has recog- 
nized no one as lawful Bishop, Priest or Deacon 
unless he could show that he had been so or- 
dained. The few apparent exceptions to this 
in early Christian history arise either from mis- 
taking the election of Clergymen to dignities for 
their ordination, as if one should in our times 
confuse a Bishop-elect, not yet consecrated, with 
one who had been duly consecrated, or from 
confusing the government of certain local 
Churches by monastic bodies, none of whose 
members were Bishops, with the exercise of 
Episcopal functions. 

There has been an attempt on the part of 
Roman Catholic controversialists to show that 
the Anglican Episcopal Succession failed in the 
time of Queen Elizabeth, when Dr. Parker was 
made Archbishop of Canterbury. This is based 
upon the fact that the full record of Bishop Bar- 
low's consecration cannot be found, and it is as- 
sumed by Roman controversialists that he was 
the actual consecrator. History clearly shows 
us however that in this case three other Bishops 
acted with Bishop Barlow, and each one of them 
independently, the mandate to consecrate being 
issued to each. Contrary to the rubric every 
one of the four said the words of consecration,so 
that while only God can know which of them He 
used as the channel for the communicating cf 
His gift, there cannot be a shadow of doubt con- 
cerning Parker's valid consecration even if Bar- 
low had never been consecrated, though there 
is no good reason for doubting the valid- 
ity of Barlow's consecration, the facts con- 



109 



cerning his life and Episcopate being thoroughly 
well-known. 

Roman controversialists are reduced to the 
argument that while Anglicans have valid Orders 
their Bishops have no jurisdiction, or right to 
exercise their Episcopate, since this, they say, 
can only be given by the Pope. It is sufficient 
to say in answer to this that it assumes the whole 
question of the Papal Supremacy. The Church 
universal has never recognized this, therefore it 
cannot be claimed as part of the Catholic system. 
Our Bishops have jurisdiction in their Sees by 
virtue of being canonically appointed to those 
Sees, holding theirmission and jurisdiction direct- 
ly from our Lord under the constitution of the 
Church. It must always be borne in mind that 
Bishops are Vicars of Christ not Vicars of the 
Pope. 

Orders is one of the Sacraments (like Baptism 
and Confirmation) which impart character, or an 
indelible impress upon the soul, so that they 
cannot, be repeated without sacrilege. A man 
once a Priest is always a Priest no matter how 
low he may fall morally, and even be degraded 
from the Ministry. For if he should so truly 
repent that the Church authorities should desire 
to restore him to his old position, he would not 
be ordained again but merely reconciled by the 
Bishop. This shows us too how the Church re- 
gards what is called 'non-Episcopal ordination." 
It is simply no ordination at all, and the minis- 
ters of sectarian bodies which have no Bishops, 
no matter how pious and learned they may be, 
are no more than laymen. For if a Priest should 



110 



come to our Communion from the Roman or 
Greek Churches, and desire to officiate at our 
Altars and be numbered among our clergy, he 
would not have to be ordained in any way, but 
satifying the ecclesiastical authorities concerning 
his orthodoxy and personal suitability to our 
ministry, might be admitted to officiate. 
Whereas any minister coming from the Presby- 
terian, Methodist or Baptist denominations would 
have to pass through ordination to the Diaconate 
and the Priesthood before he could celebrate the 
Eucharist at any of our Altars. 



Chapter XLI. 

MATRIMONY. 

Matrimony is not only a natural contract be- 
tween man and wife for mutual happiness and 
the begetting of children, but it also one of those 
ordinances which the Church has always regard- 
ed as Sacramental. Indeed it is the only rite so 
named in Holy Scripture : St. Paul says " This 
is a great mystery," (Eph. V, 32) and mystery is 
equivalent to Sacrament in our sense. As a 
Sacrament its special purpose is the hallow- 
ing of the conjugal union that it may 
be preserved from anything contrary to God's 
law, and sanctified to the extension of His 
kingdom. The essence of valid marriage is 
found in the consent of the contracting parties 
to live together as man and wife, but the Church 
has provided for the use of special prayers, the 
giving and receiving of a ring, the joining of 



Ill 



hands and the benediction of the Priest, in order 
to give due solemnity and significance to the 
marriage union. For Christian marriage it is 
of course necessary that both the parties be bap- 
tized. 

In the beginning of human history God Him- 
self made known the sacred and inviolable char- 
acter of Matrimony teaching Adam to utter this 
great principle " Therefore shall a man leave his 
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his 
wife: and they shall be one flesh " (Gen. II. 24). 
The primaeval law of Matrimony thus forbade 
both Divorce and Polygamy. The Israelites 
were apparently not sufficiently advanced in 
morals to live up to the Divine standard, for al- 
though their men as a rule had but one wife and 
but rarely sought divorce, their kings and nobles 
often married many wives and under Moses' law 
divorce was quite practicable. Our Lord de- 
clares very plainly that this last was allowed by 
God for the time because of the hardness of the 
hearts of the people, "but from the beginning it 
was not so." 

He Himself taught explicitly that death alone 
could dissolve the marriage bond (St. Mark X. 
11 ; St. Luke XVI. 18). St. Paul very clearly 
enunciates the same truth in Rom. VII. 2-3; and 
1 Cor. VII. 39. It is sometimes urged however 
that in St. Matthew's Gospel (Cap. XIX. 9) there 
is one exception made to the indissolubility of 
the marriage bond, and divorce allowed for one 
reason. The probable explanation of this pas- 
sage is that St. Matthew writing for the Jews re- 
cords the one case admitted by our Lord in 



112 



speaking to them in which a man might put 
away his wife, because according to the Hebrew 
law the guilty wife in such case was to he put to 
death, and thus her husband would be free to 
marry again. It is incredible that had our Lord 
meant the sin mentioned to be lawful cause for 
dissolution of a marriage neither St. Mark nor 
St. Luke should have mentioned it in their re- 
port of His words, while St. Paul who might be 
supposed to supply any important point left un- 
noted by the Evangelists never hints at the possi- 
bility of any exception to the simple rule that the 
marriage bond can be dissolved by nothing save 
the death of one of the parties. 

The Oriental Churches have departed from 
the strictness of primitive Christianity in this 
matter, allowing divorce in some instances, and 
our own American Church following this un- 
happy precedent does not absolutely forbid the 
remarriage of " the innocent party " where there 
has been legal divorce for the cause mentioned 
by our Lord. The English and Roman Churches 
uphold the strict teaching of Apostolic Christi- 
anity in the matter, and permit no such divorce 
as shall leave either of the parties free to many 
during the lifetime of the other. This is the 
most clear and emphatic teaching too of our 
own Form of Solemnization of Matrimony. In 
it both the man and woman must profess that 
they take each the other " till death us do part," 
and the Priest, joining their hands, is required 
to say " Those whom God hath joined together 
let no man put asunder." 

Following the direct teaching of Holy Scrip- 



113 



tiire (Lev. XVIII), the Church has from the ear- 
liest times forbidden marriage between man and 
woman within certain degrees of relationship. 
It is most important to observe that the law of 
the forbidden degrees guards the sacredness of 
Matrimony also, teaching that the marriage re- 
lationship is as close and real in God's eyes a ; 
blood relationship. Those who hold lax ideas 
on the subject of marriage and divorce do not 
like to admit this, but the Church plainly taught 
by God's revelation, has always insisted upon it. 
All marriages between people as closely related 
as uncle and niece (whether by matrimony or by 
blood) are unlawful. For a man to marry his 
deceased wife's sister is unlawful because she is, 
in the Church's eyes, his own sister; so also it is 
forbidden for a man to marry the widow of his 
deceased uncle for she is, by the Church's law/z/V 
own aunt. The key to the principle of the forbidden 
degrees is that husband and wife are as closely 
related as brother and sister, and the same de- 
gree of relationship obtains for either of them 
with the blood relations of the other. 

In some parts of the Church it is held that 
the ecclesiastical authority can for adequate rea 
sons dispense the prohibitions of the degrees of 
relationship and permit marriages otherwise un- 
lawful when the prohibitions are of ecclesiasti- 
cal and not Divine institution. In our own 
Communion no such dispensing power is recog- 
nized by canon law. 



Chapter XLII. 
EXTREME UNCTION. 
The authority for this last of those "commonly 



114 



called Sacraments" is found in the words of 
St. James. "Is any sick among you? let him call 
for the elders of the Church; and let them pray 
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of 
the Lord" (St. James, V. 14). Our Lord Him- 
self also sanctioned the use of oil as a means of 
supernatural healing, for we are told of the 
Twelve, when He sent forth two and two 
throughout the country of the Jews, that "They 
cast out many devils, and anointed with oil 
many that were sick and healed them" (St. Mark 
VI. 13). Following ancient usage the Oriental 
Churches administer Unction in cases of serious 
illness with the prayer that bodily healing may 
result,and believing that whether healing may be 
vouchsafed or not, special grace and strength to 
bear the trials and temptations incident to sickness 
are bestowed by this Sacrament upon the sick. 
For many centuries in the Latin Church Unction 
has been reserved for administration to those 
who are thought to be in extremis, and it is 
held that it imparts a special and final grace 
of pardon to the departing soul. 

Our own Article XXV would seem to charac- 
terize Extreme Unction as having grown of a 
"corrupt following of the Apostles." This is prob- 
ably meant as a repudiation of the popular Latin 
idea of the Sacrament, viz. as intended for those 
in extre?nis alone, and as an intimation that the 
primitive use of Unction, in the hope of healing 
and for giving special strength and comfort to 
the sick, is the one which the Anglican Com- 
munion accepts. As a matter of fact this Sacra- 
ment is but little used in our own Church, though 



115 



some of our Bishops consecrate oil for the pur- 
pose of its administration. 



Chapter XLIII. 

THE CREEDS. 

The shortest and simplest form of the Creed 
(or Belief) of the Church is that called the Apos- 
tles' Creed. Its origin is not known, but its 
basis was probably the baptismal formula given 
by our Lord, "In the Name of the Father and of 
the Son and of the Holy Ghost." As all adult 
candidates for Baptism were required to profess 
their faith in the Christian religion before they 
could be baptized, it was necessary that there 
should be a suitable form of words in which this 
profession could be made. No doubt therefore 
the Apostles before their general separation, 
agreed upon some definite formula of the faith 
which all should make use of. This was in the 
main the Creed which was therefore called the 
Apostles Creed. As we now have this Creed, it is 
undoubtedly derived from the early Creed of 
the Roman Church, differing from it chiefly in 
containing the clause "He descended into hell" 
which the early Roman Creed did not contain, 
though the ancient Creed of Aquileia had it. 
This article is a most important one because it 
bears witness to the reality of our Lord's death 
and resurrection. It is the faith of the Church 
that while His holy Body lay in the grave His 
Soul descended into death's domain (Hades), not 
indeed as a prisoner, but as a conqueror, binding 
the evil one, preaching to the spirits in prison, 



116 



and leading forth His holy ones to Paradise, the 
place of the Vision of God. 

A longer and more theological form of the 
Creed is that commonly known as the Nicene 
Creed because the greater part of it was first 
put forth at the council of Nicaea. This was in 
the year of our Lord 325 when 318 Bishops from 
all parts of the world met together to declare 
precisely the faith of the Church against the 
heresy of Arius, who denied the true Divinity of 
our Lord. The Nicene Council set forth all the 
Creed as we now have it so far as to the end of the 
words "And I believe" (the Orientals say we 
believe) "in the Holy Ghost." In the second 
oecumenical council (at Constantinople A. D. 
381) the Creed of Nicaea was reaffirmed arid all 
that portion we now have after the words "I 
believe in the Holy Ghost" was added. This 
with one exception however. The Council of 
Constantinople said of God the Holy Ghost 
"Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with 
the Father and the Son together is worshipped 
and glorified." The Western Churches have 
since the ninth century added "and the Son" (in 
Latin this is Filioque) to the words "Who pro- 
ceedeth from the Father." This was done to 
meet a peculiar form of heresy which had arisen 
in Spain, which denied that the Holy Ghost pro- 
ceeded from the Son as well as from the Father. 
The true Catholic doc.rine is that God the 
Father is the one Source and Fount of the 
Divine Life, from Whom both God the Son 
and God the Holy Ghost derive eternally that 
Life, but God the Son has it from the Father 



117 



alone, and God the Holy Ghost from the Father 
and the Son, or from the Father through the 
Son since the order of the Divine Life must 
always be the Father first, the Son second, and 
the Holy Ghost third. The Greeks do not 
object to the Catholic doctrine which the Nicene 
Creed as we have it sets forth, they only object 
to the words "and the Son" being added to the 
original language of the Creed of Constantinople 
except by an oecumenical council. The Nicene 
Creed, as it is generally called, is the great Eu- 
charistic Creed of the whole Church, all Com- 
munions using it at the celebration of the Eu- 
charist. 

A third and the longest as well as the 
most theological form of the Creed is that 
called after St. Athanasius (the great champion 
of orthodoxy against the heresy of Arius). We 
are not to suppose that the Athanasian Creed 
was compiled by St. Athanasius, for in its present 
form it is probably of later date than his death. 
It sets forth in the most thorough and logical 
way the great doctrines of the Trinity and the 
Incarnation, and was used in Western Christen- 
dom as early as the sixth century. The Athan- 
asian Creed is not used in the Liturgy, but is 
recited at certain times in the Choir Offices of 
all parts of the Church except our own in the 
United States. It is of course perfectly lawful 
for us to use it as a solemn anthem of praise, 
but its use is not compulsory in the American 
Church. 

By many people it is disliked because of what 
are called the minatory (or threatening) clauses; 



118 



as this, "Whosoever will be saved, before all 
things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic 
Faith, which Faith except every one do keep 
whole and undefined, without doubt he shall 
perish everlastingly." This is by no means to 
say that people who have never known the 
Catholic faith cannot be saved, but only that 
those who have known and believed it, if they 
fail to keep and hold it cannot hope for salvation. 
The words of the Creed are no more than a 
paraphrase of our Lord's own words, "He that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he 
that believeth not shall be damned" (St. Mark, 
XVI, 16.) 



Chapter XLIV. 

GOD THE HOLY GHOST. 

As we have already considered the doctrines 
of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation, 
together with the Sacramental system involved 
in the latter, we now go on to treat of the 
Church's doctrine concerning God the Holy 
Ghost. The Nicene Creed teaches us to say " I 
believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and Giver 
of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and 
the Son, Who with the Father and the Son togeth- 
er is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the 
Prophets." He is the third Person of the 
Blessed Trinity, the Spirit of the Father. (The 
name Ghost is only the old English form for 
spirit.) In creation He "moved upon the face of 



119 



the waters," in the olden days He inspired the 
writers of the Scriptures that they might not err 
in the things they revealed, and guided the 
prophets that they might infallibly predict the 
things to come. By His Almighty power He 
overshadowed the Blessed Virgin causing her to 
conceive in her womb God the Son. Upon our 
Lord He came after His baptism in the form of 
a Dove; and afterwards, in the likeness of fiery 
tongues, He descended upon the infant Church. 
He it is Who guides the Church in its delibera- 
tions into all truth, making its universal testi- 
mony to be always the infallible voice of God. 
He is it who gives efficacy to the Sacraments, 
fitting the outward earthly form to be the vehicle 
of the heavenly grace, and also enabling the 
devout partaker to lay hold upon and appropriate 
the Divine gift. 

It is the Holy Ghost Who causes the Divine 
Presence of our blessed Lord to be vouchsafed 
us objectively in the Blessed Sacrament, under 
the forms of bread and wine. Thus in every 
way is this blessed Spirit, the third Person of 
the holy Trinity, the Sanctifier of the faithful, 
making them actually holy by participation 
in the life of Christ, first regenerating them in 
Baptism, then strengthening them in Confirmation, 
feeding them in Holy Communion, and healing 
their spiritual sickness in Penance. The work 
of the Holy Ghost in our sanctification will not 
cease until He has presented all of God's faith- 
ful ones pure and undefiled before His throne in 
heaven, wholly sanctified, that it made Saints 
and so able to behold His face and Jive, 



120 



Chapter XLV. 

THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

To the Church the Creed gives no Jess than 
four titles, it is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. 
By the Church we mean that society which our 
Lord by His Apostles founded upon earth, giving 
it a Divine constitution, and supernatural powers 
to preserve and propagate the true faith, to guard 
and adminster the supernatural gifts of grace, 
and to offer continually such worship as should 
be pleasing to the Most High. As there are un- 
fortunately many different societies calling them- 
selves churches in the world, it is most important 
that we should know the marks whereby the 
true Church is to be distinguished from spurious 
churches. 

The first mark of the true Church is unity, the 
Church of Christ is one. Yet we know that ex- 
ternally it is divided into distinct and in some 
respects antagonistic Communions, Oriental, 
Roman, and Anglican. Nevertheless the Church 
is one in all those particulars for which it was 
established. 

1. It is one in the Faith. As it was founded 
to keep and teach the faith of Christ so all the 
great Communions despite their antagonisms 
hold fast and daily proclaim the original Creed,, 
adopted by universal consent in the fourth cen- 
tury, and the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures as 
the infallible Word of God. 

2. It is one in the Sacraments. As it was 
founded to guard and administer the supernatu- 
ral gifts of grace, so all the great Communions 



121 



despite their antagonisms carefully and system- 
atically administer in all things needful to salva- 
tion the Sacraments instituted by our Lord for 
the sanctification of His people. 

3. It is one in the Ministry. As the heavenly 
constitution of the Church was to be maintained 
by a Ministry Divinely commissioned, so all the 
great Communions despite their antagonisms 
have scrupulously guarded the purity of their 
Ministry,requiring all Priests to be ordained and 
Bishops to be consecrated in due lines of Apos- 
tolic Succession, so that in none of these Com- 
munions is any man allowed to officiate as Bish- 
op, Priest or Deacon whose authority is not de- 
rived from a Bishop in some recognized line of 
descent through Bishops from the Apostles 
themselves. 

4. It is one in its manner of Worship. As the 
Church was founded to maintain continually 
upon earth such worship as should be pleasing 
to God, so all the great Communions despite 
their antagonisms have perpetuated and stilr 
maintain the great Eucharistic offering of oul 
Lord's Body and Blood as the crowning act of 
Christian Worship 

Thus in Faith, in Sacraments, in Ministry and 
in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, common to all the 
great Communions, a real unity of the Church is 
found. The sinfulness of men has caused out- 
ward union and intercommunion between Cath- 
olic Christians throughout the world to be in 
abeyance. We ought to pray for the restoration 
of the unity of body as well as of spirit for the 
Church, yet we recognize the unity of spirit to 
be a real unity. 



122 



Roman Catholics claim that the Church ought 
to have one earthly head, and so to be one body 
by being subject to that one head. They say 
that in the person of the Pope the earthly head 
of the Church is found, and that the unity of the 
Church can only be preserved by those who are 
in communion with the head. But in the first 
place the Church is no mere earthly society but 
reaches out both into the intermediate state and 
into heaven itself, the large majority of its mem- 
bers being beyond this world. Therefore to 
make an earthly head over the earthly part of 
the Church when neither the waiting part nor 
the glorified part of the Church has a separate 
head, seems unreasonably to divide Christ's 
Body. He is the one Head of the whole Church. 
In the second place there is no evidence that He 
designed there should be any one earthly head 
of the Church. He expressly chose twelve, and 
to them as a body He gave the fulness of His 
authority. St. Peter was evidently foremost 
among the original twelve, yet there is no hint 
in the Bible of his holding any supremacy over 
the rest. Indeed it is quite evident that he did 
not. Nor is there any evidence in the earliest 
days of Christianity that even the foremost place 
which St. Peter had among his brethern was 
transmitted by him to any successor in the 
Church. The testimony of the Bible as well as 
of primitive Christianity goes to show that our 
Lord meant His Church universal to be governed 
by the Apostles and their successors in their sev- 
eral spheres of labour, and all questions affecting 
the faithful to be determined not by any one 
supreme voice, nor even by a majority, but by 
the common consent, the universal agreement of 
the whole body of the faithful, 



123 



The second mark of the true Church is holiness, 
the Church of Christ is holy (Eph. v, 27). It ex- 
ists for the purpose of promoting holiness among 
men, and does so by teaching Divine truth, by- 
holding up the life of our Lord as the model 
after which all must strive, and by supplying 
freely the supernatural aids of grace whereby 
alone men may become perfectly holy. 

The Church is also holy because it was founded 
by God, not by man, and because it is sustained 
by the Holy Ghost so that however the human 
element in it may be defiled and corrupted, it 
still remains, as a Divinely endowed institution, 
undefiled and incorruptible. Thus to believe in 
the holiness of the Church is to acknowledge 
both its indefectibility and its supernatural gifts 
of grace. No one who thinks the Church can 
ever fail, or that its means of grace are not, and 
shall not always be, adequate to sanctify com- 
pletely every human soul that will faithfully use 
them, believes in the holiness of the Church. 

The third mark of the true Church is Catholicity, 
the Church of Christ is Catholic. The first sense 
in which it is Catholic {universal) is that it is 
meant not for one nation nor for a few people, 
but for all nations and for the whole human race. 
Thus in the first sense of the word the Christian 
Church is Catholic as distinguished from the 
Israelitish Church; that was for the children of 
Israel alone, this for all mankind. It is not in- 
deed universal in the sense of being that which 
all receive, but in the sense that it is intended 
for all, and that all ought to receive it. The 
Catholicity of the Church is properly associated 



124 



with its Unity, because there is only one Faith — 
Catholic is therefore equivalent to Orthodox. So 
marvellously was its constitution framed by God 
that it is perfectly adapted to teach Divine truth, 
and to minister all things necessary to salvation to 
all races and conditions of men, satisfying the 
religious needs of the most undeveloped as well 
as of the most civilized nations, perfectly suited 
to the needs of the poorest as well as to the 
wealthy. The Church gives proof of its Catho- 
licity by its missionary spirit. It is never content 
with its present possessions, but must always 
seek to subdue men to the yoke of Christ until 
the whole world has heard the Gospel preached, 
and people out of all nations have been converted. 

The fourth mark of the true Church vsApostol- 
icity, the Church of Christ is Apostolic. The 
guarantee of its Divine constitution is the fact 
that it has been handed down without break 
from the Apostles of our Lord. Every portion 
of the true Church ought to be able to show that 
its Faith is that which the Apostles taught, its 
Ministry that which the Apostles ordained, its 
Sacraments those which the Apostles adminis- 
tered, and its Worship that which the Apostles 
offered. We have it on the most certain evidence 
that our Lord gave the fulness of ministerial 
power to His Apostles, if therefore our Faith, 
our Ministry, our Sacraments and our Worship 
be the same as theirs we are sure that ours is the 
perfect religion of our Lord Christ. 

We might sum up the four marks of the 
Church thus: (i) It is One, as against the many 
sects ; (2) Holy, as opposed to Lutheranism with 



125 



its fiction of imputed righteousness which denies 
any real holiness ; (3) Catholic y as against Calvin- 
ism with its teaching that only certain souls can 
be saved ; (4) Apostolic, as against all religious 
bodies which have not the true ministerial suc- 
cession. 



Chapter XLVI. 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 

The word Saint means a holy person and as all 
the baptized are holy in the sense of being mem- 
bers of Christ, the name saint was applied in 
early times to all believers. In a narrower sense 
the term now signifies a sanctified or perfectly 
holy person. Such are the Angels, and so we 
say Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel. But in a 
yet more precise sense the word is used only of 
human beings already in heaven called in the Bible 
"the spirits of just men made perfect " (Heb. xii, 
23). It has always been believed in the Church 
that some of the faithful dead, as the Blessed 
Virgin, the holy Apostles and the Martyrs were 
so perfectly sanctified by their faith and patience 
that they have already attained to the Beatific 
Vision, seeing God as He is, that is they are in 
heaven. The Bible teaches this not only in the 
passage already referred to (Heb. xii, 23) but 
also in the Revelation of St. John (cap. xx) where 
it is most plainly said that while the martyrs 
lived and reigned with our Lord a thousand 
years, the rest of the dead lived not again until 
the thousand years were finished. The same 
thing is taught by the Fathers of the Church. 



126 



St. Gregory of Nazianzum says of St Basil " His 
body is assigned to the tomb of his fathers, and 
he is joined, the high priest to the priests, that 
grand voice which still ringeth in my ears to the 
preachers, the martyr to the martyrs*, and now, 
indeed, he is in heaven, and there, as I think, is 
offering up sacrifices for us and praying for the 
people; for though he has left us, yet has he not 
utterly deserted us." (Orat. xliii, LXXX.) 

Our own Bishop Pearson is most clear upon 
the fact of the Blessed Virgin's presence in 
heaven. He says "If Elizabeth cried out with so 
loud a voice, Blessed art thou among women, 
when Christ was but newly conceived in her 
womb; what expressions of honour and admira- 
tion can we think sufficient now that Christ is in 
heaven and that mother with Him?" (On Creed 
Art. iii, 179.) 

Under the general subject of the Communion 
of Saints we may properly consider the question 
of our relations to the faithful departed who are 
not yet wholly sanctified, but are being purged 
and so fitted for the Beatific Vision. Because no 
one can tell whether the mercy of God may not 
have prevailed with any soul before the actual 
moment of death (except in the case of Judas of 
whom our Lord said, " Good were it for that 
man if he had never been born"), the Church has 
always encouraged prayers for all the dead who 
have not died excommunicate. It prays for the 
faithful departed that they may have refreshment, 
light and peace\ refreshment, because their work 
is tried by fire, as St. Paul says " The fire shall 
try every man's work of what sort it is " (1 Cor. 



127 



iii, 13); light, because they have not yet attained 
to the brightness of the perfect day of heaven; 
and peace, because perfect peace cannot be 
theirs until every trace of sin has been removed 
from their souls. 

The ancient Liturgies contained prayers for 
the faithful departed. We know from 2 Mac. xii, 
43-45 that the Jews were accustomed to pray for 
the dead, and our Lord Himself in the Synagogue 
and in the Temple must often have joined in 
such prayers. The early Church accepted them 
as a matter of course for though universally 
used there never appears to have been the slight- 
est controversy concerning them. 

In our own Church the canon of the Liturgy 
has this distinct prayer for the dead that through 
the merits of our Lord " we, and all Thy whole 
Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and 
all other benefits of His passion." It is by no 
means believed that souls who have been lost 
because of their sins in this life can be restored 
to grace after death by the prayers of the Church, 
but only that those who are already saved may be 
aided in their progress through the intermediate 
state towards heaven by the prayers of the faith- 
ful. 

If there be holy souls, the Saints more especially 
so-called, who have already attained the Vision 
of God, it is only reasonable that we should ask 
their prayers on our behalf. Article xxii con- 
demns "the Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory, 
Pardons .... as also Invocation of Saints" but 
by implication it teaches that there is a sou/id 
doctrine upon these matters, as indeed there 



128 



certainly is. The belief that the blessed Saints 
are in heaven with God and the Angels led men 
in the early days of Christianity to call upon 
them for their prayers. Not because they 
thought the Saints to be raised to any semi- 
Divine position, but only that being so holy as 
they are, and so immediately in the presence of 
God, their prayers would be more effectual than 
those of men still upon earth. 

St. Augustine says, "For the faithful departed, 
prayers are offered; for Martyrs, not; for they 
departed so perfect that they are not our clients 
but our advocates " (Serm. 285, §5 in Nat. MM. 
Casti et Aemil). St. Jerome also " If the 
Apostles and Martyrs while yet placed in the 
flesh, can yet pray for others, while they must 
still be anxious for themselves, how much more 
after their crowns, victories, triumphs!" (St. 
Jerome Adv. Vigilant, n. 7.) 

St. Chrysostom teaches the same, " Let us flee 
to the intercessions of the Saints, and exhort 
them to beseech for us " (Horn. 44 in Gen. v. 2). 
And St. Ambrose likewise " Angels are to be be- 
sought for us, who were given to us as a guard; 
Martyrs are to be besought, whose patronage we 
seem to claim for ourselves by the pledge of the 
body. They can ask for our sins, who washed 
whatever sins they had with their own blood. 
For they are God's martyrs, our presiders, the 
surveyors of our life and actions/' {De viduis, c. 
9, §55 t« "0 

The Catholic doctrine upon this matter has 
ever been that because all the faithful are one 



129 



body in Christ they can help one another with 
mutual intercessions. The Saints and Angels 
are our heavenly friends, the Saints compass us 
about as a great cloud of witnesses (Heb xii, i) 
and the Angels know and rejoice over every 
sinner that repents (St. Luke xv,io).If in the very 
earliest Christian times men prayed for the 
Blessed Virgin and the martyrs as well as for the 
rest of the faithful departed, it was not that they 
did not believe them to be in heaven and aware 
of our lives and of the things we have need of 
and pray for but because there was still the feel- 
ing that the departed could not be whol- 
ly perfected until the general resurrection, 
and that therefore the prayers of the Church 
would still in some way aid their progress. The 
more precise theology of the fourth century, the 
age of the Nicene Creed, recognized the fact 
that though the holy ones in heaven have not yet 
their bodies (in most cases) their souls 
are wholly sanctified, so that they no longer 
have need of earthly prayers, but as our friends 
and heavenly comrades they see our struggles 
and hear our cries for help, and in answer to 
those cries offer fervent prayers to God con- 
tinually for us. 

We need never fear to invoke the blessed 
Saints and Angels in the form pray for us, nor to 
seek their help so long as we recognize it as the 
help of human beings and do not confuse it with 
the workings of Divine power. 



Chapter XLVII. 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 
The Church has always taught that the bodies 



130 



of the dead shall rise at the last day and be re- 
united to their souls. This resurrection belongs 
as well to the wicked as to the righteous. Our 
Lord says "The hour is coming in which all that 
are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall 
come forth; they that have done good unto the 
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil 
unto the resurrection of damnation." (St. John 
v, 28-29.) No doubt the bodies of the wicked at 
the last day shall be unlovely enough, hideous 
and dreadful, fit abiding places of lost souls, but 
the bodies of the righteous shall be radiant and 
noble, full of marvellous new vitality. 

People wonder sometimes how it can be that 
the same bodies we have in this world shall be 
restored to us again at the last day, after they 
have turned to dust, and perhaps, in many cases, 
have been scattered to the four winds, or in 
changed forms have entered into all sorts of 
other bodies. It is a sufficient answer to say 
that it is certain the identity of the human body 
at various periods of its existence in this world, 
infancy, maturity, old age, does not depend upon 
its being always composed of the same particles 
of matter. These are constantly changing, so 
that at no two hours of our life are our bodies 
precisely the same in material substance. What- 
ever it is that makes the bod) of a man in his 
old age identical with that of his birth will re- 
main; the identity of the body shall not perish 
through death, but in the resurrection every 
man shall have his own body and not another's, 
the very body in which he lived upon earth, and 



131 



not a different one though wonderfully changed. 

The bodies of the righteous in the resurrection 
will be like our Lord's body after His resur- 
rection, incapable of suffering, radiant, subtile as 
spirits, and able to pass at will wherever they 
would go. They will be spiritual bodies, not 
earthly bodies, yet bodies of flesh and bone fitted 
for the indwelling of immortal souls. 

It is a pious belief that some of the blessed 
Saints have already received their bodies, though 
for most of the dead the resurrection shall not 
be until the last day. St. Matthew says that at 
our Lord's death the graves were opened that 
were about Jerusalem and " many bodies of the 
saints which slept arose, and came out of the 
graves after His resurrection, and went into the 
holy city and appeared unto many " (cap. xxvii, 
5 2 > 53)- We can hardly suppose that after these 
Old Testament saints had been thus made fol- 
lowers of our Lord in the glories of His resur- 
rection, they should have to return to their 
graves and to rest again with the dead. 

In regard to this matter it has been argued 
that St. Peter, speaking on the day of Pentecost, 
declares that " David is not as ce tided into the heav- 
ens" (Acts II. 34), but the Greek original shows 
the more accurate rendering of the passage to be 
David ascended not into the heavens, the meaning 
being that the patriarch, like the rest of the Old 
Testament saints, could not ascend into heaven 
until our Lord had first ascended. We do not 
know at what time after our Lord's resurrection 
the blessed dead came forth from their graves 
and went into the holy city, possibly some at one 



132 



time others at another, for the greater confirma- 
tion of the Faith. 



Chapter XLVIII. 
THE LIFE EVERLASTING AND EVER- 
LASTING DEATH. 

The Church teaches us that at the day of final 
judgment everything shall be marvellously 
changed and a new order of things be begun in 
creation. Everlasting life is the condition of the 
righteous, united inseparably to God, incapable 
of ever falling from holiness again, and clothed 
with glory and immortality. They see God face 
to face and in ever fresh delights they shall re- 
joice and be satisfied eternally. The wicked on 
the other hand are separated from God hope- 
lessly; there is no further probation for them, 
nor any possibility of final restoration. Their 
place is with Satan in hell for ever and ever. 
There are some who would like to believe that 
the punishment of hell is not eternal, yet the 
language of the Bible is most clear upon this 
point, and the Church has spoken definitely with 
regard to it in the fifth oecumenical council. It 
is not an open question whethei the lost shall 
remain in hell forever, the Church has taught 
this as a part of the faith. 

It is said sometimes why may we not suppose 
that the lost souls are eventually annihilated? 
Apart from the fact that there is nothing in the 
language of the Bible or in the teachings of the 
Church to warrant such belief, so far as we have 



133 



any evidence nothing ever is annihilated. The 
particles of matter in the universe change and 
enter constantly into new relations, but nothing 
ceases to be. There is no ground for thinking 
that a human soul can cease to exist any more 
than one of the particles of matter. Everlasting 
death is the eternal banishment of wicked angels 
and lost souls of men from the grace and favour 
of God. 

Those who at the particular judgment at the 
end of their earthly lives are accepted by God 
for our Lord's sake, pass into the intermediate 
state (or Purgatory) where they complete the 
temporal penalty due to their sins, and are fitted 
to behold the face of God. We on earth may 
help them by our prayers and especially by offer- 
ing the Holy Eucharist on their behalf. 



Chapter XLIX. 
PRAYER. 

Prayer is the communion of the soul with God. 
We are taught to pray not merely that we may 
ask of Him those things we stand in need of, but 
also that by constantly communing with Him 
we may learn to depend upon Him in every way. 
Prayer may be either public or private and we 
have in the Church many forms both of public 
and private prayers. 

The public prayers are usually offered by the 
Clergy in the name of the whole congregation. 
In accordance with the most ancient usage they 
are in set forms of words authorized by the 
Church, so that the people are not left for the 



134 



language in which their petitions are set forth to 
the individual ideas and words of the Priest, as 
they would be were the prayers extemporaneous 
or composed for the occasion. Many of the 
Church's prayers, notably the Collects (or short 
prayers of one petition) are very ancient being 
found in Liturgies more than a thousand years 
old. The public prayers are often recited by the 
Priest in a musical tone, sometimes a plain mon- 
otone, sometimes with modulations. The use of 
a musical note not only enables the prayers to be 
heard more distinctly, but also avoids the indi- 
vidual tones and expressions of the Clergy. 

The public prayers of the Church do not 
supersede the private prayers of each Christian. 
We ought at least to pray every morning when 
we rise, and every night before we retire, and 
devout people generally pray more frequently 
than this. (Ps. cxix, 164; and lv, 17.) Prayers 
for all sorts of occasions and of intercession for 
our relations and friends are found in many ad- 
mirable books of private devotions, but all daily 
prayers should include the Our Father. At 
night there should always be some examination 
of conscience, with humble acknowledgment of 
such wrong things as self-examination reveals, 
and prayer that God would pardon them. Nor 
should we omit to thank God for all His many 
daily mercies of health, strength and other bless- 
ings. 

The fact that we are social creatures, not living 
each one by himself, makes prayer for our neigh- 
bours a duty. Not only should we pray for rela- 
tions and friends, but for the Church and the 



135 



Clergy, and for those who know not and those 
who obey not God's truth (r Tim. ii, i). One of 
the best ways to test our Christian charity is to 
see whether we are ready to pray as earnestly for 
those who have wronged us as we are for our 
friends. 

As it is by our daily food especially that our 
life is sustained, so some thanksgiving should 
always be said after our meals. It is a pious 
custom also to ask a blessing upon one's food 
before sitting down to meat (i Tim. iv, 4). 

Kneeling is the natural and most suitable pos- 
ture of prayer, for although God can hear our 
prayers no matter where and how we pray, if 
sincerely, yet it is only right that when we draw 
nigh to Him in our regular devotions it should 
be in the posture of humility, that is kneeling, 
(Acts xx, 36; and xxi, 5). 

One of the most helpful of all forms of prayer 
is Meditation or mental prayer. This is the con- 
centration of all the powers of the soul upon 
some spiritual theme. A subject is taken,, as 
perhaps one of our Lord's miracles; then first the 
memory and imagination are exercised upon it to 
bring up vividly the circumstances of the facts 
as recorded in the Bible so as to form a picture 
as a starting point for the mind to contemplate. 
Upon this the understanding is brought to bear 
that it may draw from it lessons of practical ap- 
plication to the soul. By this process the affec- 
tions and pious sentiments of the person meditat- 
ing are quickened and good emotions as of love 
and gratitude to God, or of penitence and con- 
trition for sin are aroused in the soul, stirring up 



136 



the will to put forth good resolutions as the en- 
during fruit of the meditation. 

It is a very profitable practice to secure a little 
time every day for spiritual reading. The Bible 
is the first of all devotional books, but the mere 
reading of it through from beginning to end is 
by no means the best way of using it. The 
Psalms of the Old Testament, and the Gospels, 
Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles of the New- 
are the most suitable portions for our daily devo- 
tional reading. There are other spiritual books 
which many find it most helpful to study as the 
" Imitation of Christ " by Thomas a Kempis, 
the " Spiritual Combat " by Scupoli, " Holy Liv- 
ing and Holy Dying " by Bishop Jeremy Taylor 
and the " Devout Life " by St. Francis de Sales. 



Chapter L. 
FASTING. 

Fasting is one of those practices of devotion 
which the Church, following our Lord's example, 
has always taught its members to use. Literally 
fasting means going without food or drink of 
any kind, but the word is also applied to various 
sorts of self-denial in the matter of food and in- 
cludes Abstinence which is going without flesh 
meat as an act of devotion. From very early 
times in the Church it has been customary not 
to eat flesh on the abstinence days, because flesh 
more than vegetable food or fish stimulates the 
animal nature and disposes one to temptation. 
While God, in the days of Noah, allowed man to 
use the beasts of the earth for food, we should 



137 



remember that even in things allowed there 
should always be moderation, and it must be 
profitable for us to restrict in some degree the 
use of food that tends to exalt our animal at the 
expense of our spiritual nature. 

Fasting was instituted not merely for the pur- 
pose of self-denial, but rather as a spiritual exer- 
cise against the lust of the flesh. St. John teaches 
us that there are three great forms of temptation, 
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the 
pride of the life (i St. John ii, 16). The spiritual 
weapon with which we especially resist the pride 
of life is prayer j that with which we especially 
resist the lust of the eyes, or covetousness, is 
almsgiving ; and that with which the lust of the 
flesh, or sensuality, is to be fought, is fasting. 

The Church, in the Prayer Book, prescribes for 
us the rule of fasting. The fasts are two; 
Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) and Good 
Friday (the anniversary of our Lord's death). 
It is evidently the mind of the Church that on 
these days people should not eat or drink any- 
thing, keeping a fast of twenty-four hours. If 
this rule prove too severe for some we may be 
sure that the spirit of it at least is binding upon 
us, and that we should not take any food until 
as late in the day as possible, and then only so 
much as is absolutely necessary. 

There are besides these two fasts other days of 
fasting " on which the Church requires such a 
measure of Abstinence as is more especially 
suited to extraordinary acts and exercises of de- 
votion." These fasting days are the Forty days 
of Lent; the Ember Days at the four seasons 



138 



being the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after 
the first Sunday in Lent, the feast of Pentecost, 
September 14th, and December 13th; the three 
Rogation Days, being the Monday, Tuesday and 
Wednesday before Ascension Day; and all Fri- 
days in the year except Christmas Day (when 
that falls on Friday). 

On these days it is plainly said that we must 
use some measure of Abstinence (not eating 
meat), with the view of being thereby better fitted 
for such special exercises of devotion as are con- 
templated by the Church. One should also on 
these days whenever possible attend some of 
the Services of the Church. It is also most agree- 
able to the general sense of Christian teaching 
that on the fasting days we should abstain from 
parties and from places of public amusement. 



Chapter LI. 

ALMSGIVING. 
It is the duty of every Christian to give gener- 
ously of his means to the support of the Church, 
the maintenance of missionary and other charit- 
able works, and the relief of the poor. These 
several sorts of beneficence are all included 
under the general name Almsgiving. In olden 
times the Israelites were required to give the 
tithe (or tenth) of their income to sacred uses. 
Our Lord taught His Church a yet higher prin- 
ciple, not that one tenth belongs to God and nine 
tenths to ourselves, but that all we have belongs 
to God and we are but stewards of such wealth 
as He has entrusted to us. He allows us to take 



139 



our living out of what we have, and to lay up in 
reasonable amount for those who depend upon 
us; but everyone is required to give liberally and 
cheerfully according to his means so much as his 
own conscience declares to be a fair proportion 
of his income. Systematic giving is just as much 
a part of Christian duty as prayer or fasting. 



Chapter LII. 

THE COMMANDMENTS. 

At Mount Sinai God gave to Moses a full code 
of laws for the government of the Israelites. 
That code includes two sets of precepts ordina- 
rily called the ceremonial and the moral. We may 
not be able in all cases to say whether certain 
ceremonial requirements have not also moral 
significance and are in so far binding upon our- 
selves as well as upon the Hebrews of old; it is 
plain however that in the main the Israelitish 
ceremonial precepts were superseded by the 
usages of the Catholic Church. The require- 
ments of the moral law, on the other hand, being 
founded upon the essential principles of right 
and wrong, were not done away with but 
developed and perfected by Christian teaching. 
The most conspicuous of the precepts of the 
moral law are contained in the Ten Command- 
ments. 

i. The first Commandment warns us of the sin 
of putting any person or thing in the place which 
belongs to God, that is in the first place in our 
hearts. We may not indeed be able to feel the 
same sentiment of affection for God as we feel 



140 



for some of our human friends, but we must 
keep Him first in our lives by being always 
ready to give up everything that conflicts with 
obedience to Him. God must be first always, 
after Him our relations and friends; so whenever 
we neglect our prayers or other religious duties 
we break the first Commandment. 

2. The second Commandment warns us of the 
sin of giving Divine honour to any person or 
thing except God, and also of not worshipping 
Him in the right way. It forbids the making of 
images or pictures of creatures as objects of 
adoration. It is to be noted however that wor- 
ship in scriptural and theological language does 
not always mean Divine worship. We read that, 
in David's time the whole congregation of Israel 
" bowed down their heads and worshipped the 
Lord, and the king" (i Chron. XXIX. 20). The 
Church has always venerated the Cross, the im- 
ages of Saints and the relics of the Martyrs be- 
lieving that our Lord is honoured thereby, as it 
is said concerning the Brazen Serpent, u For he 
that turned himself towards it was not saved by 
the thing he saw, but by Thee, that art the Saviour 
of all" (Wisdom XVI. 7). It is right to have images 
but not to give them that supreme worship which 
belongs only to God. We may easily see that this 
is the true meaning of the Commandment for tak- 
en literally it would not permit us to have the like- 
nesses of our friends. Christians are not in dan- 
ger of making images objects of worship in 
these days, but the Commandment has very 
practical meaning for us in enjoining the right 
worship of God. We should, so far as it is pos- 



141 



sible, attend the offering of public worship in our 
own Church every holy day, and we should never 
attend the Services of any sectarian body of 
Christians. We are not to condemn individuals 
who honestly disbelieve the Catholic religion, 
but we must in loyalty to God condemn false 
and man-made systems of Christianity, substi- 
tuted by the various sects for the old Apostolic 
religion, and refuse always to take any part in 
the forms of worship of which they make use. 

The Services of the Roman Church are Catho- 
lic yet we ought not to attend them because 
of loyalty to our own Communion. The 
Roman Church authorities deny our Orders and 
Sacraments and proclaim our Communion a 
spurious Church. In loyalty to our own spirit- 
ual Mother therefore we should no more willingly 
attend Roman Services than we should be willing 
to visit in a friendly way anyone who had openly 
slandered our parents. 

3. The third Commandment warns us against 
perjury and reminds us of the great sin of irrev- 
erence. We take God's name in vain not merely 
when we are profane or blasphemous, but when- 
ever we speak lightly of sacred things or treat 
them as common things. 

4. Sabbath day means day of rest. The day of the 
week (Saturday) which the Israelites observed as 
their Sabbath seems to have been pointed out for 
them by the giving of manna as their daily bread 
(Ex. xvi). God sent it first on the day we now 
call Sunday, and told Moses that the people 
should gather it every day for six days, but on 
the seventh day they should find none for that 
was to be their day of rest. 



142 



The early Christians felt that they were not 
bound by the law of the Jewish Sabbath after the 
Church had been established. It was one of the 
things done away with by the Gospel (Col. ii, 16, 
17), and the Lord's Day (Rev.i,io) took itsplace not 
so much as a day of rest, but rather as the great 
weekly day of worship, that is of the offering of 
the Eucharist (Acts xx v 7). The Church's appli- 
cation of the fourth Commandment is that we 
should faithfully observe all the holy days, both 
feasts and fasts, and seek to do our earthly duty 
faithfully on all other days. All Sundays are 
counted as days of obligation (that is of the duty 
of attending Eucharistic worship). 

5. The fifth Commandment bids us give due 
honour and obedience to all who may lawfully 
be set over us in any way, especially to our 
parents. The source of all true authority is God 
and so the Bible teaches us that the powers that 
be are ordained of God and whosoever therefore 
resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of 
God. This Commandment teaches us to avoid 
sins of disrespect and discourtesy, and to treat 
all, superiors, equals, and inferiors in any way, 
with unselfishness and Christian charity. 

6. The sixth Commandment reminds us of 
our Lord's words "Whoso hateth his brother is a 
murderer", and that by our evil words and exam- 
ples we may lead others into sin and perhaps be 
the occasion of their losing their souls. He re- 
quires us to forgive our fellows as we hope for 
forgiveness from God, and warns us against all 
unkindness and cruelty not only to human beings 
but also to animals. 



143 



7. The seventh Commandment teaches us 
that all impure thoughts consciously allowed in 
the heart, as well as all immodest words and 
deeds are grievous sins in God's eyes. We are 
bound to strive to guard all our senses against 
every unlawful indulgence. 

8. The eighth Commandment guards men's 
possessions. It is well to remember that he who 
has once stolen anything is a thief until he has 
done everything in his power to make restitution. 

9. The ninth Commandment forbids evil- 
speaking, lying and slandering. Evil-speaking 
is talking, except in cases of genuine necessity 
(as when we ought to warn people against im- 
postors), of the faults of others, even though 
what one says be perfectly true. If we say that 
against others which is not true it is slander. 
The essence of lying is the intention of deceiving 
another, though one's words may be literally true. 

10. The tenth Commandment teaches us that 
evil thoughts are sinful. We cannot always hinder 
them from arising in our minds; so far as that 
they may be only temptations, but they become 
sins so soon as we have realized that they are 
evil and make no honest effort to be rid of them. 
If we cannot drive an evil thought out of our 
minds we can at least stir up our better nature 
to hate it. The tenth Commandment forbids 
covetousness, and under that general head are 
included ambition, avarice, discontent and envy. 
Ambition is a sin because it is a desire to surpass 
others to their loss. We should always strive to 
do the very best we can, not to excel others but 
to glorify God. 



144 



In the Church Catechism the ten Command- 
ments are summed up under the two great heads 
of duty towards God and duty towards one's 
neighbour. The first four Commandments teach 
us especially our duty towards God, and the last 
five our duty towards our fellow men. The fifth 
holds a middle place between the two groups 
because while our parents are in one sense the 
nearest of our neighbours, in another they have 
their unique place in our lives because they rep- 
resent in their persons the authority of Almighty 
God. Our Lord summed up the Decalogue (ten 
Commandments) when He said "Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all 
thy strength: this is the first commandment; and 
the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love 
thy neighbour as thyself." In which we ought 
clearly to note the fact that while the golden 
rule "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself " is 
most important, it is only the second of the two 
great commandments of our Lord, the first being 
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." 

Chapter LIII. 
THE SEVEN CAPITAL SINS. 

All sins of whatever sort may be referred to 
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the 
pride of life; but they also group themselves 
under seven principal heads, often called the 
seven capital or deadly sins. These are Anger, 
Pride, Gluttony, Lust, Covetousness, Envy and Sloth. 
These are called deadly when they are so griev- 
ous as to cut the soul off from the life of grace; 



145 



therefore if one should die while in deadly sin, 
without having tried to repent, he would certainly 
be lost. As distinguished from deadly sin we 
have what is called theologically venial sin, that 
is such lesser sin resulting from carelessness and 
unexpected temptation as does not separate the 
soul from the life of grace. We should remem- 
ber that all wilful sins may be deadly sins, and 
that even what is at first only venial may easily 
become deadly if we do not honestly seek to 
amend our lives. 



Chapter LIV. 
SOME PIOUS CUSTOMS. 

It is a venerable custom in the Church to bow 
the head at name of our Blessed Lord, in re- 
membrance of His becoming man for our salva- 
tion. The old English canon (A.D. 1603) reads 
u When in time of divine service the Lord Jesus 
shall be mentioned, due and lowly reverence 
shall be done by all persons present as it hath 
been accustomed/' Many people thus bow the 
head in the Creed and not at other times, but 
one should show this mark of reverence when- 
ever the sacred name is heard or spoken. 

To bend the knee {genuflect} is also a venerable 
usage in the Church. One should always genu- 
flect when approaching the Altar to receive the 
Blessed Sacrament, as also upon entering and 
leaving the Church or passing before the midst 
of the Altar when the Blessed Sacrament is re- 
served there. When the Blessed Sacrament is 



146 



not upon the Altar it is sufficient to merely bow 
the head reverently before the Cross. It is cus- 
tomary in Western Christendom likewise to bend 
the knee when the words in the Nicene Creed 
"And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the 
Virgin Mary, and was made Man " are being re- 
cited, out of reverence for the great mystery of 
the Incarnation. 

To make the sign of the Cross is one of the 
most ancient of Catholic usages. Of it St. Cyril 
of Jerusalem says, " Let us not then be ashamed 
to confess the Crucified. Be the Cross our seal 
made with boldness by our fingers on our brow, 
and in everything; over the bread we eat, and 
the cups we drink; in our comings in, and 
goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down 
and when we awake; when we are in the way 
and when we are still " (Catech. Led. XIII. 36). 
To make the sign of the Cross the hand is raised 
to the forehead, then drawn down to the breast, 
then to the left shoulder and then to the right, 
but in the Oriental Churches first to the right 
and then to the left shoulder. It is a profession 
of the Evangelical faith that we are saved only 
by our Lord's Sacrifice, and may be regarded as 
a short Creed in action, " I believe in God the 
Father Who dwells in heaven above, in God the 
Son Who came down to earth, in God the Holy 
Ghost Who proceeds from the Father and the 
Son." It is appropriately used at almost any 
time in one's private devotions, and in Church 
especially at the end of the Creed, at all Absolu- 
tions and Benedictions, and at the beginningand 
ending of one's devotions. 



147 



The use of Holy water is very ancient in the 
Church. The Israelites in old time, by command 
of God, had in the Court of the Tabernacle a 
great Laver or washing bowl for the use of the 
Priests ministering about the Altar. In early 
Christian times, especially in the East, it was 
common to have washing places or fountains at 
the entrances of Churches, that the worshippers 
might wash before entering the House of God. 
It seems probable that this actual washing gradu- 
ally gave place to mere ceremonial washing, sym- 
bolizing spiritual purification, and so the use of 
Holy Water became general in the Church, 
though this is not certainly the origin of the 
custom. It is often placed in vessels near the 
doors of Churches that people may on entering 
and retiring bless themselves with it. It is 
called holy water because blessed by the Priest. 



Chapter LV. 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
Besides the various precepts for holy living 
enjoined upon all by our Lord there are found 
special teachings for certain individuals. These 
are called theologically the Counsels of Perfec- 
tion. They are Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. 
Our Lord said to a certain young man " If thou 
wilt be perfect,go and sell what thou hast, and give 
to the poor" (St. Matt. XIX. 21). Concerning 
Chastity He said "All men cannot receive this 
saying, save they to whom it is given .... He 
that is able to receive it, let him receive it 
(St. Matt. XIX. 11-12). Also He said " Whoso- 
ever will be great among you, let him be your 



148 



minister; and whosoever will be chief among 
you, let him be your servant " (St. Matt. XX. 
26-27); and to the rich young man "Come and 
follow Me." 

In the early days of Christianity, when men 
were persecuted for their faith, many took refuge 
in the deserts where they led lives of great pri- 
vation. After the necessity for this had passed 
away, many continued to live in the same man- 
ner, for the sake of more uninterruptedly serv- 
ing God. They were called ascetics, anchorites, 
or hermits. Many of these holy men subse- 
o A uently formed societies for the purpose of liv- 
ing in common, and . so Christian communities 
began. The women were not slow in following 
the men in thus associating themselves in the 
common life of religion. These communities 
were regulated and put under the vows of poverty, 
chastity, and obedience probably by St. Basil 
(A. D.329.) 

SS. Athanasius and Cassian introduced the 
monastic life into the West, and there it attained 
its most complete development under St. Bene- 
dict (circ. A. D. 500). The monks were originally 
all laymen but subsequently many priests were 
associated with them. The religious vows were 
taken sometimes for life, sometimes only for 
a term of years to be renewed at the end of that 
time or not as the individual desired. 

The Friars are members of the Mendicant 
Orders, which arose in the 13th century, the 
principal of them being the Franciscans, the 
Dominicans, the Carmelites, and the Augustin- 
ians. The term religious is commonly given to 



149 



members of all the various orders, both of men 
and women, to distinguish them from lay 
people and from the Clergy who are not under the 
three vows, and who are therefore called for dis- 
tinction's sake seculars. In our own Communion 
there are many Sisterhoods, or religious orders 
for women, also a number of Communities for 
men, some of Priests, some of laymen, all living 
under the three vows. 

Chapter LVI. 
THE ECCLESIASTICAL YEAR. 

The Ecclesiastical year begins with Advent, of 
which the first day is always the Sunday nearest 
to or falling on Nov. 30th, St. Andrew's day. 
The date has been made thus moveable in order 
that there may always be four Sundays in Advent 
before Christmas. While the days of Advent 
are not days of fasting, as are the forty days of 
Lent, so far as the Services of the Church are 
concerned Advent is a penitential season, and it 
is customary on this account not to use the Te 
Deum and the Gloria in Excelsis in the Services. 
Catholic Canon law and custom forbid the 
solemnization of Matrimony also during this sea- 
son. Advent is followed by Christmas tide, begin- 
ning with our Lord's birthday and lastinguntil the 
Epiphany (Jan. 6th). It includes the feast of our 
Lord's Circumcision (Jan. 1st). The feast of the 
Epiphany (jnanifestatiai) commemorates the 
manifestation of our Lord as a little child to the 
Gentiles, the wise men from the East (St. Matt. 
II), and it is observed for eight days. It is an 



150 



ancient custom of the Church universal to cele- 
brate the greater festivals of the Ecclesiastical 
year during eight days (called an octave?) 

As in Advent violet, the colour of penitence, is 
used in the Church for hangings and vestments, 
so during Christmas tide, including the Epi- 
phany and its octave (that is until Jan. 13th) white 
or gold, the colour of joy, is used. 

The festival which determines the dates of the 
larger number of the greater holy days is Easter, 
the feast of our Lord's Resurrection. The date 
of Easter, in each year, is regulated by the moon 
as was the Passover of the Jews. From the 
earliest Christian times Easter has always been 
the Sunday after the full moon according 
to Ecclesiastical reckoning which falls on or 
next after March 2 1st, though if the full moon 
happen on Sunday, Easter is the Sunday follow- 
ing. So soon as the date of Easter has been de- 
termined in each year the dates of the various 
holy days which depend upon it are easily found. 

After the octave of the Epiphany we have in 
January and a part or all of February a period 
of ordinary days of which the Sundays are called 
Sundays after the Epiphany. As these are 
neither feasts nor fasts their colour is green, the 
colour of the face of the earth, which is the ferial 
or ordinary-day colour generally used in Western 
Christendom. 

Nine weeks before Easter we have Septua- 
gesima (that is seventieth, because in round numbers 
it is seventy days before Easter). Then the violet 
colour is used again, the singing of Alleluia 
ceases, the Te Deum gives place to the Benedicite 



151 



and the Gloria in Excelsis is not sung at the 
Eucharist, for this is the beginning of the Lenten 
penitential time. The actual abstinence days 
of Lent do not begin until Ash Wednesday. 
Septuagesima is followed by Sexagesima {sixti- 
eth) and that by Quinquagesima {fiftieth), and the 
Wednesday after Quinquagesima Sunday is Ash 
Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and a solemn 
fast day. 

The six Sundays in Lent are not with us ob- 
served as days of abstinence, for there are forty 
week days without them, but the penitential char- 
acter of the Services is maintained throughout,and 
the violet colour is used. Nor may Marriages be 
solemnized in this holy season according to 
ancient canon law. 

Two weeks before Easter the Church begins to 
commemorate more particularly our Lord's 
Passion, so that the Fifth Sunday in Lent is 
commonly known as Passion Sunday, and from 
that day on, until Easter Even the Cross and 
other ornaments in the Church are veiled, to 
symbolize the veiling of our Lord's glory in the 
days of His Passion. 

The Sunday next before Easter is commonly 
known as Palm Sunday, because of our Lord's 
triumphant entry into Jerusalem on that day,and 
the week which follows is the Holy Week. Three 
most solemn days bring the Holy Week to an 
end, Maundy Thursday {dies mandati, the day of 
the commandment to "love one another"(St. John 
XIII. 34), on which the colour is white for the 
Celebration in honour the Blessed Sacrament; 
Good Friday, the day of our Lord's death, on 



152 

which the Altar is stripped and black the colour 
of the Vestments; and Easter Even, during which 
our Lord's holy Body lay in the tomb separated 
from His soul. 

The Lenten season then ends and Easter 
begins, its colour being white or gold, and it is of 
course kept through the octave, though the 
Easter season may be said to last until Trinity 
Sunday, eight weeks from Easter day, just as 
the Christmas season lasts until the octave of 
the Epiphany is ended. 

Forty days after Easter we keep the feast of 
our Lord's Ascension, often called Holy Thurs- 
day, and then wait after it, as did the Apostles 
of old, for Whitsunday, or Pentecost (the fiftieth 
day after Easter,) w T hich commemorates the 
descent of God the Holy Ghost upon the Church 
(Acts II). As we are told that the Holy Ghost 
came in the likeness of tongues of fire, so red the 
colour of fire, is generally used in Western 
Christendom for this feast. The octave of 
Whitsunday is kept in honour of the Blessed 
Trinity, and is called Trirrity Sunday, the colour 
appropriate to it being white or gold. In the Wes- 
tern Church Thursday after Trinity Sunday is 
commonly kept as the feast of Corpus Christi, 
in honour of the Blessed Sacrament. 

There is no Trinity season properly so called, 
though this name is often erroneously given to 
the long ferial (neither feast nor fast) season 
which follows it, and continues until Advent, 
though broken from time to time by special holy 
days. The colour for the weeks after Trinity 
Sunday, except when these special days come in, 



153 



is green, the common colour, of the face of the 
earth. 

All Sundays in the year are festivals, as all 
Fridays except Christmas day are abstinence 
days, for Sunday is the weekly commemoration 
of our Lord's Resurrection as Friday is of His 
Death. 

In December besides Christmas day we have 
on the 21st the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, 
whose colour is red for he was a martyr, on the 
26th the feast of St. Stephen the first martyr, red 
also, on the 27th that of St. John the Evangelist, 
whose colour is white for he died a natural 
death, and on the 28th the Innocents' day, com- 
memorating those little children of Bethlehem 
whom king Herod slew, and on their day we use 
violet, the colour of mourning. In December we 
have also the Advent Ember Days, the Wednes- 
day, Friday and Saturday after Dec. 13th, and 
these are days of abstinence. 

In January besides the feasts of the Circum- 
cision and the Epiphany, we have on the 25th 
the Conversion of St. Paul, whose colour is white, 
the colour of joy. The Church has chosen to 
commemorate the conversion of the great Apostle 
of the Gentiles as being even more glorious than 
the day of his death, though that used also to 
be remembered, along with the martyrdom of St. 
Peter, June 29th, both these Apostles being put 
to death on that day, and probably in the same 
year. 

In February we have on the 2nd the feast of 
the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, com- 
monly called the Purification of St. Mary the 



154 



Virgin, (often popularly Candlemas-day). On 
this day white or gold is used. On the 24th we 
commemorate St. Matthias the Apostle,chosen in 
the place of the traitor Judas, and as he was a 
martyr, the colour is red. 

In March the 25th is kept as the Annunciation 
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a white or gold festi- 
val. It is often called popularly Lady day (that 
is our Lady's day). In this month the Lenten 
Ember days most commonly fall. They are the 
Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after the first 
Sunday in Lent. 

In April, the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist 
comes on the 25th and its colour is red, the 
martyr's colour. 

In May SS. Philip and James(theLess or theyoung- 
er) are remembered together on the 1st. There 
seems no especial reason why the two names 
should be joined in this way, unless because our 
Lord sent forth His disciples two and two. The 
colour of their day is red. In this month Ascen- 
sion Day almost always comes and the Rogation 
days (of abstinence) being Monday, Tuesday and 
Wednesday before that great feast. 

In June on the nth we have St. Barnabas 
commemorated, the colour being red; on the 24th 
we have the Nativity of St. John Baptist, with 
white for the colour; and on the 29th St. Peter 
the Apostle is remembered, with red for the 
colour. The Whitsuntide Ember days are very 
apt to fall in June though when Easter is early 
they come in May; they are the Wednesday, Fri- 
day and Saturday after Whitsunday, and are days 
of abstinence, Their colour is red, 



155 



In July we keep St. James's day (the brother 
of St. John), on the 25th, and the colour is red. 

In August the 6th is the feast of our Lord's 
Transfiguration, a white day; and the 24th St. 
Bartholomew's day, whose colour is red. 

In September we have on the 21st the feast of 
St Matthew the Apostle, with red for the colour; 
and on the 29th St. Michael and All Angels, 
whose colour is white. In this month come the 
autumnal Ember days, being the Wednesday, 
Friday and Saturday next after September 14th; 
they are days of abstinence, and their colour 
violet. 

In October the 18th is St. Luke's day; and the 
28th is kept as the feast of SS. Simon and Jude, 
Apostles; the colour of both feasts is red. 

On November the 1st is the great feast of All 
Saints,on which we thank God for all the blessed 
spirits of just men made perfect who now behold 
the face of God in heaven. The colour is white. It 
is the custom in many parts of the Church to re- 
member the rest of the faithful dead, not yet 
wholly sanctified, on Nov. 2nd, called commonly 
All Souls day. On the 30th of this month St. 
Andrew is remembered, the colour being red. 
Besides the greater festivals and fasts as they 
have been enumerated there are in the English 
Prayer Book many lesser holy days, chiefly com- 
memorations of Saints, called Black Letter days, 
because they are printed in the Calendar in 
blacky while the names of the greater festivals 
are properly printed in red. They have not how- 
ever special Collects, Epistles and Gospels as- 
signed them in the Prayer Book. 



INDEX. 



Aaron, 
Abel, 
Ablutions, 
Abraham, 



PAGE 

18 

11, 26 
81 
14 



bosom of 28, 104 
Absolution, 35, 92, 95 

in the Bible, 97 
in the Prayer 

Book, 97 
objections to, 98 
how far 

necessary, 99 
general, 99, 100 
Abstinence, 136, 138 

days of, 151 
Achan's confession, 93 
Acolytes, 87 
Adam, 9, 111 

the Second, 26 
sin of, 63 
Admission to Holy 

Communion, 69 
Advent, 149 
Affusion, Baptism by, 61 
Age, for Baptism, 63 
for Confirmation, 68 
for Anglican 

Confirmation, 68,69 
Alb, 86 
Alexandria, Jews in 23 
patriarchate of, 43 
Alleluia, 150 
All-wise, 3 



PAGE 

All Saints day, 155 
All Souls day, 155 
Almightiness of God, 3 
Almsgiving, 137, 138 

Altar, of burnt-offering, 17 
of incense, 17 
the Christian, 50, 84 
ornaments of 85 
stripped on Good 

Friday, 152 
Office, 13, 17-21 
Ambition, 143 
Ambrose St., on Invoca- 
tion, 128 
American, Church, 54 
Prayer Book, 54-56 
Episcopate, 54 
Church on 

Divorce, 112 
Amice, 86 
Anabaptists, 57 
Anchorites, 148 
Andrew St., 149, 155 

Angels, orders of, 7 
festival of 155 
Anger, 144 
Anglican, Reformation, 48 
separation from 

Rome, 49, 50 
rule about fasting 

Com., 79 
rule about Con- 
fession, 96 



ii 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Anglican teaching about 

Absolution, 97 
Orders, 108 
Animal sacrifices, 12 
Annates, 49 
Annunciation B.V.M. 154 
Antediluvians, 12 
Antioch, patriarchate of, 43 
Apocrypha, 23 
Apostles, the Twelve, 

26, 30, 35, 41, 120-124 
in heaven, 125 
Creed, 115 
Apostolic, ministry 56 
commission, 99 
succession, 107, 121 
Apostolicity of the Church, 
120, 124 

Archangels, 8 
Archbishop Parker's case, 
108 

Arius, his heresy, 32,42,116 
Ark of Noah, I3 
Ark of the Tabernacle, 17 
Aries, council of, 46 
bishop of 47 
Articles of religion, on 

Sacraments, 59 
on Eucharist, 72 
on Reservation, 91 
on Purgatory, 105 
Ascension of our Lord, 

30, 152, 154 



PAGE 

Ascetics, 148 
Ash Wednesday, 137 
Athanasius St., 148 
Creed of, 56, 117 
Attending, sectarian ser- 
vices, 141 
Roman Services, 141 
Augustine St. of Hippo, 38 
on the Eucharist, 71, 72 
on fasting Com., 79 
on the Saints in 

Heaven, 128 
Augustine St., of Canter- 
bury, 47 
Augustinians, 148 

b. 

Babylonish Captivity, 22 
Baptism, a Sacrament, 

35, 59-63 
by lay people, 58, 61 
vows of 68 
minister ot 60 
formula of, 59,61,114 
manner of adminis- 
tering, 61 
of our Lord, 61, 119 
of the Ethiopian 

eunuch, 62 
of infants, 63 
Baptists, 57, 61 

Barlow, Bishop, 108 



INDEX. 



iii 



Barnabas St., 
Bartholomew St., 
Basil St., 

in heaven, 



PAGE 

154 
155 
148 
126 



Beatific vision, 29,103, 116, 
125, 132 

Beatitude, natural, 65 
Begotten Son of theFather, 5 
Bell, the Sanctuary, 89 
Bending the knee, 81, 145 
before the B.S., 146 
at the Incarnatus, 146 
Benedicite, 150 

Benedict St., 148 
Bible, of the Israelites, 20 
inspiration of, 38 
manuscripts of, 38 
difficulty of, 39 
daily reading of, 136 
Bishop Seabury, 54 
White, 55 
Madison. 55 
Provoost, 55 
Pearson on the B.V. 
M. in heaven, 126 
Bishops, powers of, 36, 67 
British. 46 
American 54 
ordination restric- 
ted to, 106, 121 
laying on of the 

hands. 107 
three at all Con- 
secrations, 107 



PAGE 

Black as a Church colour, 
89, 152 
letter days, 155 
Blessed Virgin, 24, 25 

in heaven, 125, 126 
prayers for, 129 
Blessed Sacrament, 77, 145. 

151 

Blessing before meat, 135 
Blood from our Lord's 

Side, 74 

Body of man, 7 
of our Lord, 33 
Resurrection of 129 
Bodies, of the Saints, 129, 131 
of the wicked, 130 
Bosom of Abraham, 28 
Bowing at the Blessed 

Name, 145 
towards the Altar, 146 
Brazen serpent, 140 
Bread, for the Eucharist, 90 
unleavened, 45, 90 
British Church, 47 
Brothers of our Lord, 25 
Burnt ottering. 18 



c. 

Cain. 
Calvinists. 
Canaan, land of, 



11 

57 
14, 21 



iv 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Candlemas day, 154 
Candles of the Altar, 85 
Candlestick of the Taber- 
nacle, 17, 19 
Canon of H. Scripture, 38 
Canonical Hours, 50 
Capital sins, 95 
Carmelites, 148 
Carthage, 3d Council of, 38 
Cassian, St., 148 
Cassock, 86 
Catholic, same as orthodox, 
124 

doctrine concerning 
Saints, 128 
Sacraments, 58 
Catholicity of the Church, 
120, 123 

Celebrant, 87 
Ceremonial law, 139 
Chalcedon, council of, 43, 45 
Chalice, 85 
the mixed, 90 
Change of substance in B.S. 

74 

Character imparted by 

Sacraments, 69, 109 
Charity with all men, 78 
Charles I and II of Eng- 
land, 52 

Chastity, 147 
Chasuble, 86 
Cherubim, 8 



PAGE 

Choir offices, * 50, 86 

Chrism, 67 

Christ, 25 
the Head of the 
Church, 122 

Christian Ministry, 35 
worship, 84 

Christmas, 25, 149, 150 
never a fast day, 138 

Christ's ordinance, 91 

Chrysostom St., on the 

Eucharist, 72 
on Invocation, 128 

Church, the Israelitish, 22 
the Christian, 29, 30 
functions of, 29 
spread of, 34 
organization of, 35 
persecutions of, 41,42 
of England, 46-49 
of Gaul, 46 
of Britain, 47 
of Ireland, 47 
the Holy Catholic, 120 
marks of 120-124 
not an earthly 

society, 122 
seasons of 149 

Circumcision, the rite of, 14 
feast of 149 

Clarendon, Constitutions of 
48 

Cloud of God's Presence, 22 



INDEX. 



v 



PAGE 

Collects of the Church, 134 
Colours of the Church 

seasons, 19, 88 

Coming of the H. G., 31 
Commandments, the 

Ten, 17, 95, 139, 144 
Communion, the Holy, 

35, 77 
preparation 

for, 78 
fasting be- 
fore, 79 
Communion of Saints, 125 
Communities of relig- 
ious, 148 
Concomitance, doctrine 

of 75 
Concupiscence, 64 
Confession, 93-96 
before H.C., 78 
in the Old 

Test., 93 
in the New 

Test., 93 
in the early 

Church, 93 
private, 94 
to a priest, 94,95 
objections to, 94 
how to make, 

95, 96 
frequency of, 96 
general, J00 



Confession, how far ob- 
ligatory, 100 
Confessional, 96, 102 

Confirmation, the Sac- 
rament of, 35,59,60-66,69 



by Bishops 




only, 


67 


age for, 


68 


necessary 




before H.C., 69 


Conscience, examina- 




tion of, 78, 95, 100, 134 


quieting of, 


100 


Consecration of the Eu- 




charist, 


89 


of Bishops, 


107 


Consent the essence of 




Matrimony, 


110 


Constantine emperor of 




Rome, 


41 


Constantinople, council 




of, 


43 


patriarchate 




of, 


44 


patriarch of, 


45 


Contrition of David, 


102 


Convocation of the 




Church of Eng., 


49 


Cope, 


86 


Cotta, 


86 


Corpus Christi, 


152 


Council, general or cec- 




cumenical, 42 


,43 



INDEX. 



vi 

PAGE 

of Xicaea, 32,42,46 
of Constanti- 
nople, 43 
of Ephesus, 32, 43 
of Chalcedon,43,45 
fifth oecumeni- 
cal, 132 
in Trullo, 38, 79 
of Aries and 

Sardica, 46 
of Cloveshoo, 48 
Counsels of perfection, 147 
Court of the Temple, 21 
Courtesy, 142 
Covetotisness, 10, 144 

Creation, 5, 6 

Credence table, 85 
Creed, the Apostles, ' 115 
the Constantino- 

politan, 116 
theNieene, 42,H6,14G 
the Athanasian, 

56, 117 
in the sign of the 
Cross, 146 
Cross, of our Lord, 26 
of the Altar, . 85 
sign of, 62, 146 

Cruelty, 142 
Cruets, 85 
Customs of Christians, 145 
Cyprian St. and Roman 
supremacy, 45 



PAGE 

Cyril, St., on the Eu- 
charist, 74 
Cyrus, king of Persia, 22 

D. 

| Dalmatic, 87 
Daughters of men, 13 
David, 21, 93, 101 

"ascended not into 
the heavens," 131 
Day, of judgment, 130 
of rest, 141 
the Lord's, 142 
Days, of creation, 6 
of fasting, 137 
of abstinence, 138 
Ember, 137 
Rogation, 138 
of obligation, 142 
Deacons, 36, 87 

functions of, 37 
ordination of, 107 
Dead, remembrance of 
them at the Altar, 83,104, 
106 

prayers for, 104, 126, 127 
Deadly sins, 95, 144 

Death, power of, 10, 27 
everlasting, 132 
the end of pro- 
bation, 132 
Decalogue, 17,95.139,144 



INDEX. 



PAGE 



Deceased wife's sister, 


113 


Descent into hell, 


28 


in the Creed, 


115 


Devil, 


8 


Devils, 


8 


Difficulties of the Bible, 


39 


Diocese, 


36 


Divine justice, 101, 103 


Divinity of our Lord, 




28, 32, 33 


Division of Israel, 


22 


Divorce in the Bible, 


111 


Dominicans, 


148 


Dominions, an order of 




Angels, 


8 


Donatists, 


56 


Door, "I am the," 


75 


Double Procession of 




the H. G. 


116 


Duty, towards God, 


144 


towards one's* 




neighbour, 


144 


E. 




Early history of the 




Church, 


41 


Easter, 150 


151 


Even . , 


152 



Eastward position, 90, 91 
Ecclesiastical, colours, 19,88 
penance, 102, 103 
year, 149 



vii 

PAGE 

Eden, 9 
Edward VI, of England, 49 
Prayer Books 
of, 51,52 
Eighth Commandment, 143 
Elders of the Church, 36 
Elizabeth, Queen of 

England, 49, 52 

Prayer Book of, 52 
excommunicated 
by the Pope, 49 
Ember days, 137, 153, 154, 
155 

English Church, 46 
in America, 54 
offices of, 51 
resisting the 
Pope, 47, 48 
Enoch, 12 
Envy, 144 
Ephesus, council of, 32, 43 
Epiphany, 149, 154 

Episcopacy, 36, 107, 108 
Esau, 14 
Eucharist, the Holy, 

35, 50, 59, 69 
three parts in, 70 
as a Sacra- 
ment, 77 
for the dead, 83, 104 
solemn high, 87 
elevation of, 89 
for the sick, 91 



vtii 



INDEX, 



PAGE 

Eucharistic, worship, 

58, 121, 142 
presence, 70, 71 
sacrifice, 81, 121 
memorial, 82 
vestments, 85 
wine, 89 
bread, 90 
Creed, 117 
Eunuch of Ethiopia, 62 
Eutyche, heresy of, 43 
Eve, 9, 10 

Evensong, 51 
Everlasting life and 

death, 132 
Ever-virgin, 25 
Evil, origin of, 8, 9 

thoughts, 143 
Examination of con- 
science, 78, 95, 100, 134 
Example, evil, 142 
Exceptions to Episco- 
pal ordination, 108 
Excommunication, 45 
Eyes, lust of the, 137 
Ezra, 21, 93 



F. 

Faith, the Church one 
in, 

Faithful departed, 
Fall of man, 



120 
126 

9 



PAGE 

Fasting, 136, 137 

before H. C, 79 
Fasts of Church, 137 
Fathers, teaching con- 
cerning the Saints, 126 
Ferial days, 150, 152 

Fermented wine for the 

Eucharist, 90 
Fifth Commandment, 142 
Fifty days after Easter, 30 
Filioque, 116 
First Commandment, 139 
First Communion, 69 
FirstP.B. ofEdwardVI, 49 
Flesh, lust of the, 137 
Flood, 12 
Forbidden degrees in 

Matrimony, 113 
Forty days of Lent, 

137, 138, 153 
after Easter, 152 
Fourth Commandment, 141 
Franciscans, 148 
Frequency of receiving 

H. C, 80 
Friars, 148 
Friday, Good, 137, 151 
a fasting day, 138 
Fundamentals of relig- 
ion, 58 



G. 



Gabriel, St., 



8, 125 



INDEX. 



ix 



AGE 

Gallic Christianity, 46 
Garden of Eden, 9 
General Councils, 42, 43 
Genuflection, 81, 145 

Ghost, the Holy, 

5, 24, 31, 106, 118 152 
Giving systematically, 139 
Gloria in excelsis, 149, 151 
Giuttonv, 144 
God, ' 3-5 

His immanence in 
nature, 40 

in Three Persons, 3, 116 

our duty towards, 

140, 144 

Godparents. 62 
Gold as a Church 

colour, 89, 150-154 

Good Friday, 137, 151 
Goodness of God, 3, 5 
Grace, 58 
means of, 29, 31, 58 
Greek, Old Testament, 23 
Church, 46 
Green as a Church 

colour, 89, 150-153 

Gregory, the Great, 47 
the Seventh, 44 
of Xazianzum, 126 
Guardian Angels 9 
Guilt of sin, 101 



Hades, 



28, 115 



PAGE 

Head of the Church, 122 
Heathen, 64 
Heaven, the Saints in, 

104, 128 

Heber, 14 
Hell, our Lord's de- 
scent into, 28, 115 
the wicked in. 104 
eternity of, 132 
Henry VIII of England, 48 
Heresy, 56 
Hermits, 148 
Highpriest, 18 
History, of the Israelites, 21 
of the Church, 41 
Holiness of the Church, 

120, 122 

Holy, Communion, 35 

Ghost, 
5,24,31,106,118,152 

Place, 17, 22 

Scripture, 

20, 37, 38, 120 
Thursday, 152 
Water, 147 
Name, 145 
Week, 151 
Hours, the Canonical, 50 
House of God, 22 
How, to receive the B.S., 81 
to make Confes- 
sion, 95, 96 



Identity of the human 
body, 130 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Image, of God, 7 
worship, 140 
Immaculate Conception 

B. V. M., 25 
Immanence of God in 

nature, 40 
Impurity, 143 
Incarnation, 24, 25, 119 
Incarnatus, genuflection 

at, 146 
Incense, 19, 87 

Altar of, 17 
Indelibility of Orders, 109 
Indissolubility of Mar- 
riage, 111 
Indulgences, 105 
Inexistence of the 

Divine Persons, 5 
Infallibility, of the 

Bible, ' 39, 120 

of the 

Church, 119 
Infant Baptism, 63 
Infants, unbaptized, 64 
dying after Bap- 
tism, 104 
Innocents, the Holy, 153 
Inspiration of the 

Bible, 38, 119 

of the 

Church, 119 
Intention, in Baptism, 60 
special for 

M.c., 79 



PAGE 

Intercessory prayer, 134 
Intermediate state, 

104, 126, 133 
Invocation of the H.G. 

in Liturgy, 55 
Invocation of Saints, 127, 129 
Irish Church, 47 
Irreverence, 141 
Is, "This is my Body, " 76 
Isaac, 14 
Israel, 15, 16, 22 

J. 

Jacob, 14 
James St., the Less, 154 
the brother of John, 155 
James I, of England, 52 
Jeremy Taylor, on Fast- 
ing Com., 80 
Jerome St., on Saints 

in heaven, 128 
Jerusalem, patriarchate 

of, 44 
Jesus, our Lord, 25 
bowing at the 
name of 145 
John St., the Baptist, 93, 154 
the Evangelist, 

107, 153 

Joseph the son of Israel, 15 
Joseph St. the husband 

£. V, M., 25 



INDEX. 



PAGE 


PAGE 


Joshua, 


21 


Confirmation, 


67 


Judah, the kingdom of 


22 


in Ordination, 


107 


Judas, the traitor, 


26 


Lazarus and Dives, 


104 


in hell, 


126 


Lent, 137, 


151 


Jude St., 


155 


Leo the Great, 


44 


Judges of Israel, 


21 


Levi, 15, 18 


Judgment, the particu- 




Life, of God, 


5 


lar, 104, 133 


everlasting, 


132 


the gener- 




pride of, 


137 


al, 104, 130 


the religious, 


147 


Jurisdiction of Angli- 




Lights, in worship, 


19 


can Bishops, 


109 


of the Altar, 


85 


Justice of God, 101, 103 


Likeness of God, 


7 






Litany in English, 


51 


K. 




Liturgy, 


50 




the Scottish, 


55 


Kings of Israel, 


21 


prayer for the 




Kneeling in paayer, 


135 


dead in, 


127 


before the B.S., 


145 


London, Bishop of over 




at the Incarnatus,146 


Amer. colonies, 


54 






Lord's day, 


142 


L. 




Love of Goa, 


5 




Low Mass, 


87 


Lady day. 


154 


Lucifer, 


8 


Lamp, sanctuary, 


92 


Luke St., 


155 


Laodicea, synod of, 


38 


Lust, 


144 


Last day, 


130 


of the flesh, 


137 


Latin Confirmation, 


67 


of the eyes, 


137 


Laver, of the Taber- 




Lutherans, 


57 


nacle, 17, 147 


\ Lying, 


143 


of the Temple, 


21 






Law of Moses, 


16 


M. 




Laying on hands, in 




Madison, Bishop, 


55 



INDEX. 



xii 

PAGE 

Maniple, 86 
Manna, 141 
Mark, St., 154 
Marks of the Church, 

120, 124, 128 
Martyrs, in heaven, 

125, 128 
prayer for, 129 
Mary, Blessed Virgin, 

24, 25 

in heaven, 125, 126 
Mary queen of Eng- 
land, 49, 52 
Matins, 51, 86 
Matrimony, Sacrament 

of, 59, 110 

among Protes- 
tants, 58 
in Holy Scrip- 
ture, 110, 111 
essence of, 110 
indissoluble but 

by death, 111 
forbidden de- 
grees in, 113 
not solemnized 

in Advent, 149 
not solemnized 
in Lent, 151 
Matthew St., 155 
gospel of, 37 
Matthias, St,, 30, 154 

Maundy Thursday 151 



PAGE 

Means of grace, 29, 31, 58 



Meditation, 135 
Members of Christ, 6 1 

Memorial of our Lord, 82 
Mendicant Orders, 148 
Mercy Seat, 18, 20 

Merit of our Lord, 27 
Messiah, 25 
Methodists, 57 
Methuselah, 12 
Metropolitans, 43 
Michael St., the Arch- 
angel, 8, 125, 155 
Millenium, 125 
Minatory, clauses of 

Athan. Creed, 117 
Mind of God, 4 
Minister of Baptism, 61 
Ministry, the Christian, 35 

the Church one\\\,Yl\ 
Miracles, of our Lord, 34 

nature of, 39 

why seldom 

wrought now, 98 
Missa, the Mass, 50, 84 

cantata, 87 
Missal, 85 
Mixed Chalice, 90 
Monks, 148 
Moral law, 139 
Moses, 16, 18 

Most Holy Place, 



17,18,20,22 



INDEX. 



xiii 



PAGE 

Mother of God, 25, 33 
Mystery, that is Sacra- 
ment, 110 

N. 

Natural Beatitude, 65 
Neighbour, duty to- 
wards, 144 
Nestorius, heresy of, 32, 43 
New Testament, 37 
Nicaea, first Council of, 32, 43 ! 
Nicene Creed, 42, 58, 116, 146 
Nine Orders of Angels, 7, 8 
Ninth Commandment, 143 
Noah, 13 

o. 

Obedience, to authority, 142 
in religious 
life, 147 
Octaves of festivals, 150 
Objections to the Bible, 39 
to the Real 
Presence, 
72, 73, 75, 76 
to Confession, 94 
to Absolution, 98 
to indissolu- 
bility of 
Marriage, 111 
to Athansian 
Creed, 117 



APGE 

Objections to Invocation 

of Saints, 127 
to eternal 
punishment, 132 
Objective Presence in 

B. S., 71, 83 

Oblation in the Liturgy, 55 
Offerings of Cain and 

Abel, 11 
Offices of the Church, 50 
Oil, in Confirmation, 67 
in Unction of the 
sick, 115 
Old Testament. 21 
One, the Church, 120 
Order of the Divine Life, 5 
Orders, of Angels, 7 
of religious. 148 
Orders, Sacrament of. 

59, 106, 109 
Anglican, 103 
Ordination, by Bishops 
only, 1U6, 108 

manner of, 106 
of Deacons 
and Priests, 107 
non-episco- 
pal, 109 
Organization of the 

Church, 35 
Oriental, Christianity, 46 
Con firm a 

tion, 67 



INDEX. 



xiv 

PAGE 

Oriental, practice con- 
cerning Divorce, 112 
Origin of evil, 8, 9 

Original sin, 63, 64 

Origination appropriate, 

to the Father, 5 
Ornaments, Rubric, 53 
of the Church, 85 
veiled in Pas- 
sion tide, 151 
Our Father, 134 
Our Lord's Baptism, 62 

P. 

Pallium of Archbishops, 47 
Palm Sunday, 151 
Papacy, 44, 122 

Papal, authority in 

England, 47 
claims rejected 

in Eng., 49 
Supremacy, 44, 49, 109 
Schism in Eng., 50 
Paradise, 29, 104, 116 

Pardons or Indulgences, 105 
Parker, Archbishop, 108 
Particular judgment, 

104,133 
Passion, of our Lord, 

26, 27, 151 
Sunday, 151 
Paten, 85 
Patriarchates, 43, 46 



PAGE 

Patriarchs, of the Old 
Test., 14 
of the 

Church, 43 
Patripassian, heresy, 33 
Paul St., 35, 46, 107, 153 
Pearson Bp. on the B. V. 

M. in heaven, 126 
Penalty of sin, 

10, 27, 100, 101, 103 
after death, 103, 105 
Penance, Sacrament of, 

52, 92, 100 
given after 

Confession, 102 
ecclesiastical, 103 
Penitential seasons 149 
Penitentiarius in the 

early Ch., 94 
Pentateuch, 20 
Pentecost, 31, 152 

Perfection, Counsels of, 147 
Persons in the Divine 

Life, 3-5, 24 

Peter, St., 

32, 35, 107, 122, 153, 154 
"Thou art, " 44 
primacy of, 45, 122 
Philip St.. the Deacon, 62, 66 
the Apostle, 154 
Pious customs, 145 
Place, the Holy, 17, 18, 22 
Poenitentia,or penance, 101 



INDEX. 



XV 



PAGE 


Polygamy, 


111 


Pontifical Mass, 


87 


Pontius Pilate, 


26 


Popes, powers claimed 




for, 105, 


109 


Post-baptismal sin, 


93 


Postures at H. C,, 


80 


Poverty, in the religious 




life, 


147 


Powers, an order of, 




Angels, 


8 


Powers that be, 


142 


Prayer, 


133 


the Lord's, 


134 


intercessory, 


134 


posture in, 


135 


mental, 


135 


a weapon against 


pride, 


137 



Prayer Book, English, 49-53 
American. 54-56 
on Matri- 
mony, 112 
Prayers, for the dead, 

104, 126, 127 
of the Saints, 127 
for the Saints, 129 
Preach, power to, 37 
Presbyterians, 57 
Presbyters, powers of, 36, 37 
. Preparation, for H. C, 78 
for Con- 
fession, 95. 90 



PAGE 

Presence, the Divine, 

17, 18, 22 
the Real ob- 
jective, 70, 71, 76, 83 



Pride 10, 137, 144 

Priests, of Israel. 18 
Christian. 90 
laying on hands 

of, 107 
ordination of, 107 
powers of, 37 
Primaeval Matrimony, 111 
Principalities, an order 

of Angels, 8 
Prisoners of hope, 28 
Private Confession, 94 
Probation only in this 

life, 132 
Procession of the Holy, 

Ghost, 5, 116 

Proofs of our Lord's 

Divinity, 33 
Prophecies concerning 

our Lord, 34 
Protestant, Episcopal, 56 
Sects, 57 
Sacraments, 58 
Ministers. 

109,110 

Protestantism, rise of, 57 
Provincial Synods, 42 
Provoost, Bishop, 55 
Punishment of David, 102 



INDEX. 



xvi 

PAGE 

Purgatory, 104, 133 

Romish doc- 
trine con- 
cerning, 105 
in the Bible, 126 
Purification of B.V.M., 153 
Puritans, 52 

q. 

Quieting of conscience, 100 
Quinquagesima, 151 

R. 

Raphael St., the Arch- 
angel, 8 
Reading, spiritual, 136 
Real Presence, 70, 76, 83 
objections 
to, 72, 76 
Reception of Holy 

Communion, 80, 81 

Red, as a Church colour, 

89, 152, 155 
Redemption, 6 
Reformation, in Eng- 
land, 48 
Regeneration, 64, 119 

Rehoboam, 22 
Relics of the Saints, 140 
Religious, life, 147, 148 
vows, 148 



PAGE 

Renewing Baptismal, 

vows, 68 
Reserved Sacrament, 

91, 92, 145 
Resistance to Rome in 

Eng., 47, 48 

Rest, the day of, 141 
Restitution, 143 
Resurrection, of our 

Lord, 34, 131, 150 

of the 

body, 129 
of the 

Saints, 131 
bodies, 131 
Rich man and Lazarus, 104 
Rogation days, 138, 154 
Roman, controversy, 108 
theory of unity, 122 
priests coming 
to the Ang. 



Ch., 110 
teaching on 

Divorce, 112 
schism in Eng- 
land, 50 
Rome, the Jews under, 23 
patriarchate of, 43 
supremacy of, 44 
primacy of, 45 
Creed of, 115 
Rubric, of Ornaments of 
Kdward VI., 53 



INDEX. 



xvii 



PAGE 


PAGE 


Russian Church, 46 


Samaria, 


66 




Sanctification, 6, 


119 




Sanctuary, the Israelit- 




ish, 


17 


Sabbath, 18, 141 


the Christian, 


84 


Sabellians, heresy of, 33 


Sanctuary lamp, 


92 


Sacrament, the Blessed, 


Satan, 


8, 9 


77, 145 


Saturday, 


141 


the Reserved, 91 


. Saul, 


21 


Sacramental Confession, 95 


Savoy Conference, 


52 


Sacraments, of the Gos- 


Saxons conversion of, 


47 


pel, 59 


Schismatics, 


56 


commonly so 


Scotland, 


55 


called, 59 


Scottish Liturgy, 


55 


efficacy of, 119 


Scripture, Holy, 




the Church 


20, 37, 38, 120 


one in, 120 


Seabury, Bishop, 54, 55 


Sacrifice, worship by, 12,18 


Seasons of the Church, 149 


the daily, 18 


Second Adam, our Lord 


26 


of the Cross, 


Second Commandment, 140 


26, 81, 82 


Sectarian worship, 


141 


of the Euchar- 


Sects, 


56 


ist, 81-84 


Seculars, 


149 


unbloody, 83 


Seed of the woman, our 




Saints, the, 125 


Lord, 


24 


made by the H. 


Self-denial, 


137 


G., 119 


Self-examination, 




in heaven, 


78, 95, 100, 


134 


104, 126, 128 


Sensuality, 


10 


Communion of, 125 


Sentence of Adam and 




Invocation of, 127 


Eve, 10, 24 


bodies of, 131 


Separation between 




festival of All, 155 


East and West, 


45 



xviii 



INDEX. 



PAGE 



Septuagesima, 150 

Septuagint, 23 

Seraphim, 8 

Serpent, the brazen, 141 

Seth, 12 
Seventh Commandment, 143 

Sexagesima, 151 

Shewbread, 17 

Sick, Unction of, 59, 114 
Communion of, 91, 92 

Sign of the Cross, 62, 146 

Simon St., 155 

Sin, 10 

after Baptism, 93 

penalty of, 100 

guilt of, 101 

of David, 102 

Sins, kinds of, 96 

capital, 95, 144 

against God, 101 

venial and wilful, 145 

Sisterhoods, 149 

Sisters of our Lord, 25 
Sitting in presence of 

the B. S., 80 

Sixth Commandment, 142 

Slander, 143 

Sloth, 144 

Solemn Eucharist, 87 

Solomon, 21 

Sons of God, 13 

Souls, All, 155 

Spirit, the Holy, 5 

Spirits of the dead, 28 



PAGE 



Spiritual reading, 136 
Sponsors in Baptism, 62 
Stephen St., 153 
Stole, 86 
Strength, the gift of 

Confirmation, 66 
Subdeacon, 87 
Substance, change of in 

the B. S., 73 
Succession, Apostolic, 

107, 121 
American, 107 
Sufferings of our Lord, 27 
Sunday, 141 
Palm, 151 
Trinity, 152 
a weekly festi- 
val, 153 
Supernatural holiness, 7, 10 
Supremacy of Rome, 44, 49 
Surplice, 86 
Synod of Laodicea, 38 
Synods, provincial, 42 



t. 

Tabernacle of Israel, 

17, 18, 21 

Tabernacle of the Altar, 92 

Taylor Jeremy on Fast- 
ing Com., 80 

Te Deum, omitted in 
Advent and Lent, 149, 150 



IA T DEX. 



PAGE 

Temple of Solomon, 21, 22 



Temporal penalty of 

sin, 101 
Tenth Commandment, 143 
Testament, the Old, 21 
the New, 37 
Thanksgiving, a part of 
prayer, 134 
after Holy 

Com., 81 
after Meat, 135 
Theotokos, the B.V.M., 25 
Third Commandment, 141 
Thomas St., 153 
Thought of God, 4 
Thoughts, evil, 143 
Thousand years (Mil- 
lenium). 125 
Throne of the Taber- 
nacle, 17 
Thrones, an order of 

Angels, 8 
Thursday, Maundy, 151 
Holy, 152 
Tithe, 138 
Transfiguration of our 

Lord, 155 
Transubstantiation, 73 
Trinity, the Blessed, 4, 5 
Sunday, 152 
Sundays after, 152 
Trullan Council, 38, 79 
Truth, Divine, 31 



xix 

PAGE 

Tunic of deacons, 87 
Turks, 46 
Turning towards the 

people, 91 
Twelve, the number of 

Apostles, 122 
Two kingdoms, Israel 

and J ud ah, 22 
Types, 26 

u. 

Unbaptized persons, 64 
Unbloody sacrifice, 83 
Unction, Sacrament of, 

59, 113 
in Confirma- 
tion, 67 
Unkindness, 142 
Unleavened bread, 45, 90 
Unity of the Church, 120-122 
Uriel St., an Archangel, 8 

v. 

Vases, for flowers on 

the Altar, 85 
Veil of the Sanctuary, 17 
Venial sin, 145 
Vespers, 51, 86 

Vestments of the 

Clergy, 19, 85 

Vicars of Christ, all 

Bishops, 109 



XX 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Vine, "I am the true," 75 
Violet, as a Church 

colour, 89, 150-153 

Virgin, the Blessed, 24, 25 
Virtues, an order of 

Angels, 8 
Vision of God, 

29, 103, 116, 125, 132 
Vows of religious, 147, 148 

w. 

Wafer bread, 90 
Water, with Blood from 

our Lord's side, 74 
of the mixed 

Chalice, 90 
Holy, 147 
Wednesday, Ash, 137 



IAPGE 
Week, Holy, 151 
Wesley, John, 57 
i White, Bishop, 55 
j White, as a Church 

colour, 89, 150-155 

Whitsunday, 152 
Wicked, in hell, 104 
Wilful sin, 145 
Wine of the Eucharist, 89, 90 
Word, God the, 4 
Words of our Lord con- 
cerning the B.S., 7G 
Worship of God, 

17, 29, 31, 35, 84, 140 
the Church one 

in, 121 
of images, 140 
sectarian, 14 



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